Trump says U.S. deal with Russia on Syria will save many lives

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Syria would save many lives after the two met at a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders.

“We agreed very quickly,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew from the APEC meeting in the resort city of Danang to Vietnam’s capital Hanoi. “It’s going to save tremendous numbers of lives.”

The Kremlin earlier said Trump and Putin had agreed on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit that a political solution was needed on Syria and that they would continue efforts to fight Islamic State.

“We spoke intermittently during that roundtable. We seem to have a very good feeling for each other and a good relationship considering we don’t know each other well,” Trump said, adding that he and Putin had two or three very short conversations.

Trump said Putin had reiterated that he did not meddle in last year’s U.S. presidential elections, which brought Trump to the White House.

Trump said a good relationship with Russia was important.

“In fact it would be a great thing … because he could really help us in North Korea. We have a big problem with North Korea and China is helping us,” Trump said. “If Russia helped us in addition to China that problem would go away a lot faster.”

Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping was a good man who “wants to do right,” but he wanted Xi to ratchet up more pressure on North Korea.

Earlier in Danang, Putin and Trump agreed a joint statement on Syria that said they saw no military solution to the conflict and a political one was needed, the Kremlin said.

The Kremlin said the statement on Syria was coordinated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson especially for the meeting in Danang.

With Islamic State having suffered losses in Syria and beyond, greater attention is turning to the broader conflict between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebel factions.

Putin and Trump had agreed to continue joint efforts to fight Islamic State, the Kremlin statement said.

They confirmed their commitment to Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and called on all parties to the Syrian conflict to take an active part in the Geneva political process, it said.

Moscow and Washington agree there is no military solution to the Syrian conflict, according to the text of the joint statement published on the Kremlin’s website.

It said the leaders “had a conversation before the group photo ceremony for the APEC Economic Leaders.”

Television pictures from Danang showed Putin and Trump chatting – apparently amicably – as they walked to the position where the traditional APEC summit photo was being taken at a viewpoint looking over the South China Sea.

Trump has shown little appetite for holding talks with Putin unless there is some sense that progress could be made on festering issues such as Syria, Ukraine and North Korea.

After emphasising last year on the campaign trail that it would be nice if the United States and Russia could work together on world problems, Trump has had limited contact with Putin since taking office.