Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin was no less an exciting feature of the G-20 summit than Narendra Modi’s interaction with Xi Jinping. The scheduled 30-minute meeting between the Presidents of the USA and Russia stretched for more than two hours.

The other striking feature was that the highly-anticipated meeting took place amid investigations over suspected Russian meddling in the 2016 election and the rising tensions over a range of issues, most particularly in the Gulf region and more recently North Korea’s test of an ICBM missile.

Far too little has been disclosed about the meeting. The US President went to the high table in Hamburg with no set agenda, but it is reported that he and Putin spoke about a ceasefire in south-west Syria, Ukraine, the fight against terrorism, and cybersecurity. But the issue of riveting interest turned out to be a damp squib.

Putin almost readily denied the Kremlin’s culpability in matters electoral despite the FBI’s charge that Trump’s aides were in regular contact with Russian representatives during the campaign.

Trump accepted his counterpart’s contrived defence, which would suggest that diplomatic courtesies were allowed to obfuscate the core issue. Indeed, the US President is facing investigations by the FBI, House of Representatives, Senate, and the special prosecutor into his campaign team’s alleged links to Russian officials as well conduct as charges relating to the obstruction of justice.

The two-hour interaction must, therefore, rank as a classic case of agreeing to disagree. President Trump, as reports suggest, was willing to discuss the issue; not so President Putin. Small wonder the US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, underlined the “positive chemistry” between the two leaders ~ “Much of the focus was how to move the relationship forward”.

Yet the Russian interference shall remain a blot on the electoral process in the fountainhead of democracy. Curiously enough, the threat of North Korea was not brought up despite Putin’s call for deterrence on the part of Pyongyang in the immediate aftermath of the ICBM test.

President Trump has repeatedly said that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and the ongoing tests of nuclear weapons was one of the most important issues for the security of the US. He has criticised the Security Council for its inaction, as well as China for continuing to trade with Pyongyang.

The leaders of the two big powers were therefore expected to be focused on the issue. In terms of substance there was little save the expressed hope that the cease-fire in Syria will hold. However important the bilateral dialogue, it was definitely not the focal point of the G-20 summit.

Which doesn’t obfuscate the reality ~ Trump has been under a cloud since Day One because of Putin. Yet both leaders made a strained attempt to dumb down the issue.