奥巴马同意与普京在纽约举行会晤

President Barack Obama has agreed to meet VladimirPutin in New York to discuss Syria and Ukraine,bringing to an end a year-long effort by the White House to diplomatically isolate the Russianpresident.

美国总统巴拉克攠巴马(Barack Obama)同意在纽约与俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔渠京(Vladimir Putin)会晤，讨论叙利亚和乌克兰问题，这将为美国政府对普京长达一年的外交孤立画上句号。

The Obama administration has decided that the importance of a face-to-face meeting with MrPutin to discuss the Syrian conflict outweighs the risk that Mr Obama will appear to be relaxinghis criticism of Russian actions in Ukraine.

奥巴马政府断定，与普京面对面讨论叙利亚冲突意义重大，就算会被外界认为奥巴马在放松对俄在乌行动的批评，也应举行这次会晤。

The two leaders will both be in New York on Monday for the UN General Assembly. The meetingfollows Russia’s recent move to establish an air base in north-western Syria together withfighter jets, anti-aircraft missiles and a significant number of Russian military personnel.

两位领导人都将于下周一出席联合国大会(UN General Assembly)。俄最近已采取行动，在叙利亚西北部建立了一个空军基地，并部署了战斗机、防空导弹和大量俄军事人员。

A senior Obama administration official said the meeting would take place at the “request ofPresident Putin. The official added: “Despite our profound differences with Moscow, thepresident believes that it would be irresponsible not to test whether we can make progressthrough high-level engagement with the Russians. The Kremlin also confirmed the meeting.

奥巴马政府一位高官表示，此次会晤是应“普京总统的要求举行的。这位官员补充称：“尽管我们与莫斯科方面存在深刻分歧，但奥巴马总统认为，如果不去尝试一下我们能否通过与俄展开高层接触来取得进展，将是不负责任的。俄罗斯政府也证实将举行此次会晤。

With the conflict in eastern Ukraine relatively quiet at present, the Russian government hasrepeatedly appealed to Washington for more communication about the Syria crisis and hascast Mr Putin as a responsible leader who would do his best to settle issues of globalsignificance with the US president.

目前乌克兰东部冲突相对平静，俄罗斯政府已多次呼吁美国政府与之就叙利亚危机展开更多沟通，并称普京是一位负责任的领导人、会尽最大努力与奥巴马解决全球重大问题。

At the very least, the meeting will represent a propaganda victory for Mr Putin, who would liketo weaken western support for Ukraine-related sanctions on the Russian economy. However,US secretary of state John Kerry is keen to explore the potential for a dialogue with Russiaabout a political solution to the Syrian civil war.

对普京来说，此次会晤至少将代表着在宣传方面取得的一次胜利。普京希望削弱西方对与乌克兰有关的对俄经济制裁的支持。不过，美国国务卿约翰克里(John Kerry)也希望探索有无可能通过与俄展开对话来求得叙利亚内战的政治解决方案。

Foreign policy experts close to the Kremlin said on Thursday they believed the UN GeneralAssembly offered a chance for bringing the US closer to the Russian position on Syria. Butsome analysts say Mr Putin’s ultimate goal is domestic as he needs a new boost to underpinpublic support ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections and presidential elections in 2018.

与俄政府关系密切的外交政策专家周四表示，他们认为此次联合国大会为美向俄在叙利亚问题上的立场靠拢提供了一个机会。但一些分析人士表示，普京其实着眼的是国内——他需要鼓舞人心的新政绩来在明年议会选举和2018年总统选举前巩固民意支持率。