Trump and Putin met secretly twice, here's the town where the meeting took place

White House officials confirmed on Tuesday evening that at the G20 summit this month in Germany, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a second meeting, which did not become public to the media.

The two presidents met face to face for the first time in Hamburg on July 7th, for more than two hours of talks widely covered by the media.

But it now turns out that Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin have had a second conversation during a dinner that evening, laid out for heads of state from the 20th Group.

President Trump commented without delay on Twitter to refute media reports: “The false play for the secret dinner with Putin is the disgusting ʹx1>.

It has not yet been announced why this conversation was discussed, which lasted approximately an hour, according to Ian Bremmer, president of the political ray consultancy near “Eurasia Group”.

Just a little conversation

The White House offered a very different option. Officials who refused to authenticate said: “did not have a second meeting between President Trump and President Putin; it was just a brief conversation at the end of a” dinner.

Mr. Bremmer first announced the Trump-Put meeting on Tuesday in a news bulletin sent his clients. He told American television networks that he had learned about the Trump-Putin conversation from those who had attended the official dinner, where the media were not allowed.

With the two presidents was only Mr. Putin's translator. Other guests were sitting near them, but large tables and the way those present sat made it possible for the conversation not to be heard by anyone.

No American translators present

The fact that Mr. Trump's translator was not present in the conversation caused surprise among other leaders at dinner, according to Mr. Bremmer, who calls this a “violation of the national security protocol.” The White House said, however, that at dinner only one translator for delegation was allowed and that Mr. Trump had with him a Japanese-speaking translator, but not Russian.

Mr. Bremmer told the Washington Post newspaper that other leaders who witnessed the meeting were surprised because the conversation took place in front of everyone, but at a distance no one could hear of what was being discussed.

“Tell me that all participants at dinner thought this was something very strange”, Mr. Bremmer told the New York Times. “.. Here's the president of the United States, who clearly wants to show that he has a better personal relationship with President Putin than with any of us, or he just doesn't want to. This surprised and confused everyone. ”

No official chat documentation

Regarding the second conversation Trump-Putin, the media noted that the US government did not hold any official documentation of the Trump-Putin meeting, as no other American official accompanied Mr. Trump for conversation, however short or long it was.

The American news networks covered the Trump-Put meeting as urgent news, prompting commentators to point out that the moment the conversation became known was by no means favourable for the administration.

Last week, everything was dominated by media coverage of a June 2016 meeting between the president's eldest son Donald Trump Jr, and a number of Russians, including a lawyer linked to the Kremlin; a former Soviet agent; a previously investigated translator for money laundering, as well as a second Russian translator.

Trump Jr tried to minimize the meeting in New York as a routine, short, and irrelevant conversation, but later, when other details were learned from the media and the presence of the people attending, he was forced to change his version several times.

The White House answers slowly

The president has continued to deny any co-operation with Russia and insists the US would benefit if he succeeded in building a personal friendship with the Russian leader.

On Tuesday evening, White House officials reacted late in response to media questions about the second Trump-Putin meeting in Hamburg.

Officials later said any notion that the administration was trying to hide the second meeting was the false, malicious and absurd”.

Meanwhile, the White House announced on Tuesday evening that President Trump has decided to appoint former State Governor Utah and US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman as the next US ambassador to Moscow. / VOA/