After the shock of the terrorist attacks in Paris, there has been some movement on the diplomatic front as both Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama met to discuss how to beat the terrorists in Syria.
The images running all day on the TVs at the G20 summit in Antalya were not the usual pictures of rather dull meeting rooms. Instead, TVs were tuned to news channels broadcasting from various countries and in a number of different languages. Paris, the terrorist attacks and the investigation were the only subject anyone was interested in, Deutsche Welle reported.
The leaders of the 20 most important countries in the world were also only focused on one topic: How can we effectively counter terrorism, which in recent months has struck not only France but also Turkey, Russia, Tunisia and Lebanon? The members of the G20 all agreed that the war in Syria is currently one of the main sources of terrorism abroad.
Obama promised to redouble the fight against the so-called “Islamic State”. At the same time, a spokesperson for the president called for greater efforts from the allies in the anti-IS coalition currently conducting air attacks in Syria.
Before the start of the summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country is also leading airstrikes in a separate campaign, said that “forces must now be combined”. Unexpectedly, Obama and Putin met for around half an hour on the sidelines of the conference and, according to eyewitnesses, they had an intense discussion.
