Putin and Obama will not Meet at APEC Summit

The Kremlin is sorry the meeting between Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and the US President Barack Obama will not take place at the APEC summit, press secretary of the Russian leader, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Friday. \"We are sorry the meeting will not take place,\" he said. \"The bilateral relations require a lot of meetings at the top level.\" Peskov noted the large number of issues of bilateral relations regarding international relations, headed by the Syrian crisis. \"We understand the developing situation. We hope that it will be resolved and we await the next chance to hold a bilateral meeting,\" Putins press secretary was quoted by Russian News Agency (Itar Tass ) as saying . Previously Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov said that preparations for Putin and Obamas meeting, scheduled for October 7 at the APEC summit were underway. However, due to the U.S. Federal Government shutdown and the unresolved stalemate between the White House and Capitol, Obama cancelled his visit to Indonesia. Vladimir Putin traditionally utilizes major international summits in order to hold bilateral meetings with national leaders, including U.S. president, on the events sidelines. Such a meeting at the previous APEC summit in September of 2012 could not take place as Obama was running in the election race. Source: QNA