i am delighted to be able to meet you personally. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, everyone. >> thank you. here we go. -- secretary of state rex tillerson is attending the g 20 summit in germany and he briefed reporters on president trump's meeting with vladimir putin yesterday.

we were able to bring the audio that runs about 20 minutes. thanks for staying with us. president trump and black -- and president vladimir putin met this afternoon. here on the sidelines of the g 20. on leaders exchanged views the current nature of the u.s. russia relationship and the --ure of the u.s.-real u.s.-russia relationship. they discussed important topics like syria. i think many of you have seen some of the news that just broke regarding the escalation agreement, the memoranda that was agreed between the u.s., regardingd jordan southwest syria that affects the security of jordan but is also a very complicated part of the syrian battlefield. -escalation area was

agreed. a cease-fire has been entered into. this is our first indication of the u.s. and russia being able to work together in syria. as a result, we had a lengthy discussion regarding other areas in syria where we can continue to work together on the area.ing and to work together towards a political process that will secure the future of the syrian people. ofa result, at the request vladimir putin, the u.s. has appointed a special representative for ukraine. ambassador kurt volker. he will draw on his decades of experience in the u.s. diplomatic corps, both as a

representative to nato and also his time as a permanent political of treatment. the leaders also acknowledged the challenges of cyber threat and interference with the democratic processes of the u.s. and other countries. and agreed to explore creating a framework around which the two countries can work together to better understand how to deal with the cyber threats. both in terms of how the tools are used to interfere with the internal affairs of countries but also to threaten infrastructure, and from a terrorism standpoint as well. the president opened the meeting with president latimer peyton by raising the concerns of the american people regarding russian interference in the 2016 election.

they had a robust and lengthy exchange on the subject. presidentent pressed latimer put in on more than one occasion regarding russian involvement. the russian leader denied such involvement as he has in the past. the leaders agreed though that hindrancesubstantial in our ability to move the u.s.-russian relationship forward and agreed to exchange on commitments of non-interference in the affairs of the u.s. and our democratic process as well as those of other countries. more work could be done in that regard. i can take your questions. are you going to referee? secretary, can you tell saidether president trump

that there would be any consequences for russia regarding the interference in the u.s. did he spell out any specific consequence? what makes you think that the cease-fire will succeed this time when past u.s.-russian cease-fires did not? >> regarding interference in the election, the president took note of actions that haven't discussed by the congress. most recently, additional sanctions that has been voted out of the senate. declaring the seriousness of the issue. presidents rightly focused on is moving forward. how to move forward from here. it is unclear to me that we will ever come to some agreed upon resolution of that question between the two nations. the question is -- what do we do now?

the relationship, and the president made this clear, is too important. and it is too important not to find a way to move forward. not dismissing the issue in any way, and i do not want to leave you with that impression. tot is why we have agreed continuing cage and and and discussion around how to secure a commitment that the russian government has no intention of and will not interfere in our affairs in the future or in those of others. how do we create a framework in which we have some capability to judge what is happening in the cyber world and who to hold accountable. this is an issue that is broader than just u.s. and russia but we see the manifestation of that threat in the events of last year. presidents are rightly focused on how to move forward on what may be an intractable disagreement at this point. as to the syria cease-fire, i

would say what may be different this time is the level of commitment on the part of the russian government. they see the situation in syria transitioning from the defeat of isis, which we are progressing rapidly, as you know, and this is what has led to this discussion with them is what do we do to stabilize syria once the war against i said -- against isis is won. ultimately, russia also wants -- to have a discussion clinicalilitating stability. we will see what happens. part of what is different is where we are relative to the whole war against isis.

where we are in terms of the position as to their strength within the country and the regime itself. in many respects, people are getting tired. getting weary of the conflict. we have an opportunity to create the conditions and this area in the south is our first show of success. we hope we can replicate this elsewhere. spoke whenetary, you you were talking about the cease-fire regarding details that could enforce this. can you give us those details? and what about the future leadership of syria? >> i would like to do for on this specific -- i would like to on the specific roles of the military on the ground. a couple more meetings have been

scheduled. have a clear picture of who will provide the security forces but we have a few more details to work out. if i could, i would like to on that until they are completed. i think that will happen next week. the talks are ongoing. >> does the administration still believe in a role of assad? >> we see no long-term role for -- the regime or the family. we have made it clear to everyone that we do not think that syria can achieve international recognition in the future, even if they work through a successful political process -- the international community will not accept a regime.d by the assad

if syria is to be accepted and is to have a secure economic future, it requires that they find new leadership. we think it will be difficult for them to attract the humanitarian aid as well as the reconstruction assistance that will be required. there will be such a low level of confidence in the assad government. that continues to be the view. how he leaves is yet to be determined. our view is that somewhere in the political process, there will be a transition away from the assad family. on north korea, did latimer putin agree to anything to help the u.s.? you seem to have reached somewhat of an impasse in terms of china and it putting pressure

on north korea. what will president trump say to the chinese president tomorrow? have a pretty good exchange on north korea. i would say the russians see it a little differently than we do. will continue those discussions and ask them to do more. russia does have economic activity with north korea. but i would also hasten to add that russia's official policy is the same as ours. a denuclearize to korean peninsula. a eight d nuclear rise to -- denuclearized korean peninsula. we will try to persuade them as to the urgency that we see. with respect to china, our experience has been -- and i have said this to others -- it has been uneven.

china has taken significant action. and then, i think for a lot of different reasons, they have paused and did not take additional action. in our view, there are a lot of explanations as to why those we remainurred, but very closely engaged with china in our dialogues, face-to-face, but also on the telephone. we speak frequently with them about the situation in north korea. there is a clear understanding between the two of us regarding our intent. the sanctions action that was taken here in the last week to 10 days, certainly got their attention in terms of their understanding our resolve to bring more pressure to bear on north korea by directly going after the entities doing business with north korea, our work -- irregardless of where it

ate our -- of where they are doing action. our engagement is unchanged with china and our expectations are unchanged. we have not given up hope. in anou are in -- , thisch like we are using is a campaign to lead us to a peaceful resolution. if it fails, we don't have many options left. it is a peaceful pressure campaign and it requires calculated increases in pressure and a left -- and requires that the regime have time to react. it is going to require some level of patients as we move this along. when we talk about our strategic

patience and a, what we mean is that we are not going to sit idly by and we will follow this all the conclusion. -- all the way to the conclusion. we know china and russia askedly said -- they to freezea to free -- the nuclear activities. did president vladimir putin bring up his concern regarding the deployment of the system? what is the expectation of president trump regarding the meeting with the chinese president? did not come up in the meeting with president latimer putin. progress ofthe

north korea in the last missile launch, those are some of the differences of views we have in terms of tactics and how to deal with this. hasident vladimir putin expressed a view not unlike that of china that they would support a freeze for freeze. if we study the history of the last 25 years of engagement with various regimes in north korea, this has been done before. and every time it was done, north korea proceeded with its program. the problem with freezing now, if they freeze where they are today, they freeze their activities at a high level of capability. we do not think it sets up the right tone for where the stock should begin. we are asking north korea to be prepared to come to the table with an understanding that these talks are going to be about how towe help you chart a course

cease and rollback your nuclear program. that is what we want to talk about. --are not interested in the we are not interested in talking about stopping where you are today because that is unacceptable to us. could you give us a roadmap -- did you agree on a next set of talks between the presidents? impressions -- we thought it was going to be a 30 minute meeting and it ended up being over two hours. and in the update on the ukrainian sanctions? agreed nextno

meeting between the presidents. there are agreed follow-up meetings between working level groups at the state department. we have agreed to set up a working level group to explore the framework agreement about the cyber agreement -- those will be ongoing with various staff levels. it will be out of the state and the national security adviser's office. twoo the nature of the hours and 15 minutes -- let me characterize the meeting as very constructive. leaders, i would say, connected very quickly. there was a very clear, positive chemistry between the two.

again, and i think the positive thing that i observed, and i have had many meetings with president vladimir putin before. there was not a lot of relating of the past. -litigating of the past. the perspective of both of them was that this is an important relationship. how do we start making this work? how do we live with one another? we simply have to find a way to go forward. i think that was expressed over and over, multiple times. by both presidents. this strong desire. it is a complicated relationship today because there are so many issues on the table. took a of the reasons it long time is because once they

met, and got acquainted with one another fairly weekly, there was so much to talk about -- all of these issues. just about everything got touched on to one degree or another. ofre was just such a level engagement and exchange that neither wanted to stop. several times i had to remind the president and people were sticking their heads into the door and they even sent in the first lady at one point to see if she could get us out of there but that did not work either. that is true. -- we went another hour after she came in to see you so clearly she failed. what i have described to that it was an extraordinarily important meeting. there is so much rest to talk about and it was a good start. we spent a lengthy period on

syria. with a great amount of detail exchanged on the agreement. the agreement that was concluded today. but also where we go and trying to get much clearer clarity about how we see this playing out and how russia sees it playing out. commonre do we share a view and where do we have a difference. and we have the same objectives in mind? by andtell you that large, our objectives are exactly the same. how we get there, we each have a view. but there is a lot more commonality to that then there are differences. we want to build on that commonality and we spent a long time talking about next steps. where there are differences, we have more work to do together. there was a substantial amount of time spent on syria because

we have had so much activity going on with it. >> can you say if the president was unequivocal in his view that russia interfered in the election? did he offered to produce any evidence? asked forsians have proof and evidence. thell leave that to intelligence community to address the answer to that question. thisnk the president at and he- he pressed him felt like at this point, how do we talk about going forward. i think that was the right place to spend our time rather than spending a lot of time having a disagreement. everyone knows we have a disagreement. >> thank you, guys very much and have a great evening. >> c-span, where history unfolds

daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. sunday, on "q and a" asking anyone to compromise their values or beliefs. i am asking them to open their eyes to other people's so you can figure out your place in this infinite world. >> brooke gladstone, managing "on the media." she discusses her book "the " in whichth reality she looks at what constitutes reality today and how the criteria has changed over the years. beginning oft the

the book our biological wiring. and i wanted to show how we had evolved a culture that was designed to validate us and not to challenge us. certainly, not to contradict us. it gave us the illusion that our realities were watertight when really they were riddled with weak spots and places that would crunch in. p.m.nday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q and a." on c-span "washington journal" is next come alive. and later, the history of the communist party. coming up in about an hour on washington journal, the president of the american foreign-policy council discusses president trump and the recent g 20 summit. national immigration law center's ev. talks about the implementation of the travel ban

and legislative action on sanctuary cities. jessica discusses her recent article on sentencing juveniles to life in prison. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: it is saturday, july 8, 2017 and topping the headlines on "washington journal" is the first face-to-face meeting between donald trump and vladimir putin. the much-anticipated meeting yesterday on the sidelines of the g 20 summit began with president trump pressing vladimir putin on u.s. intelligence reports of russian meddling in u.s. election which vladimir putin denies. russian officials claim the president accepted the denial and u.s. officials said otherwise. they te