'What the f--- was that?' My nine hours at Trump's bewildering summit [View all]

After travelling 2,000 miles, enduring a three-hour security screening and arguing over seating arrangements with the Russian media, expectations were high for the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

The early signs were positive – a warm handshake, a ride along in “The Beast” and the claim by Russia that talks could last “six or seven hours”.

But that feeling came to a screeching halt inside the press tent at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, when a press conference was called just three hours in – and it emerged that the wider bilateral talks had been scrapped.

The two leaders appeared on stage for just 12 minutes. There was no ceasefire and they did not take a single question.

… snip …

The first surprise of Mr Trump and Putin’s post-summit press conference was that the Russian leader was the first to speak.

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