Trump and Putin discussed returning Syrian refugees during controversial meeting, says Mike Pompeo

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin discussed the Syrian crisis and how to return refugees who had fled the war-torn country during their behind closed doors meeting earlier this week, secretary of state Mike Pompeo has said.

“It’s important to the world that at the right time, through a voluntary mechanism, these refugees are able to return to their home country,” Mr Pompeo said as he visited the United Nations, in New York.

Asked about the proposed visit of Mr Putin to the US, he said: “I’m happy that the two leaders of two very important countries are continuing to meet. If that meeting takes place in Washington, I think it’s all to the good.”

Mr Trump has been criticised for the meeting in the Finnish capital Helsinki, because he spoke privately with his Russian counterpart for more than 90 minutes.

Usually American presidents are accompanied by senior staff and note takers who keep a record of everything said, but Mr Trump was assisted only by an interpreter.

Since then Russian officials have referred to agreements they say the two leaders reached, but there has been little explanation from the Trump camp about what transpired.

Mr Pompeo said: “We have our senior leaders meeting all across the world with people where we have deep disagreements with. It is incredibly valuable to the people of the United States of America that President Putin and President Trump continue to engage in dialogue to resolve the difficult issues that our countries face between each other. I think this makes enormous sense, and I’m very hopeful that that meeting will take place this fall.”

Mr Trump, meanwhile, took to Twitter late on Friday to complain about media coverage of Monday’s meeting.

“I got severely criticised by the Fake News Media for being too nice to President Putin,” he wrote. “In the Old Days they would call it Diplomacy. If I was loud & vicious, I would have been criticized for being too tough.”