The US and Russian presidents are set to appear on stage in Anchorage, Alaska, this evening for a lengthy public address following a brief sit down in front of the press earlier
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are two peas in a diplomatic pod, one expert has said, as the world leaders used the same two power moves during their Alaska meeting.
The two touched down in Anchorage this evening for crunch talks billed as a vital opportunity to decide the future of the war in Ukraine, but from the outset the meeting appeared to go positively as the men grinned and gripped one another in a firm embrace. They talked amicably while walking down a red carpet laid out on their arrival, and smiled pleasantly for the cameras before sitting alongside one another in Mr Trump’s “Beast” presidential limousine.
As the two continue to participate in the crunch talks, eagle-eyed observers have picked out key signs that the two are operating on the same wavelength – even down to their strongman moves.
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Speaking to the Mirror, body language expert Darren Stanton said he observed the two men making the exact same gesture during their initial sit-down on before they entered today’s negotiations. He said he saw Trump using a hand gesture named the “reverse steeple” which was distinctively mirrored by his negotiating adversary.
The steeple, Mr Stanton said, is a “power gesture” in Mr Trump’s behavioural arsenal which he “always makes”, and is one of two copied by Putin.
He explained the gesture sees people put their fingers together “almost like a doctor would do” before turning the gesture upside down, and was visibly being copied by Putin.
He said: “We also noticed that Putin was making the very same gesture.” He added they both spread their legs during the early meeting: “Also both men tend to spread their legs because the more space we occupy as human beings, again, denotes the more powerful we think we are.
He continued: “So Putin and Trump – the world’s two biggest egos – they’re still conscious of how things look…so even though they’ve come with mutual respect and wanting to do to do what’s needed, they still want to appear very strong and neither man wants to appear the weaker person.”
The two men are due to appear in a press conference together later this evening, having spent just two hours and 30 minutes in conversation during the talks.
They will speak together from the stage in Anchorage, with the bilateral meeting expected to have produced positive results – at least for Mr Trump. The US President said he would not hold a conference with his Russian counterpart if they failed to come to an agreement of some kind.