PBS高端访谈:为什么特朗普和普京的秘密谈话值得关注?

 　　On July the 7th, President Trump¹ sat down for a highly anticipated meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

　　But, last night, it was disclosed that there was a second lengthy² conversation later that day between the two leaders,

　　one that the White House had not spoken of at the time. Nick Schifrin reports.

　　It was a three-hour dinner party for the world's most powerful people, 20 leaders, and their spouses³.

　　On the menu, turbot fish fillet, Friesian beef cheeks, and chitchat.

　　President Trump worked the room, and then took his seat. Diagonally across the table, first lady Melania Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

　　The two talked to each other with the help of Putin's translator.

　　And as a dessert of raspberries and cheese was served, Mr. Trump walked over to Putin.

　　White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders today called their talk brief and informal.

　　To try to create that there was some sort of private conversation in a room with 40-plus people seems a little bit ridiculous.

　　Nick Burns is a former U.S. ambassador to NATO and veteran diplomat⁴ who participated in dozens of U.S.-Russia meetings.

　　This is not a bad thing. Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are the two most powerful people in the world. They barely know each other.

　　They'd only met once before this G20 dinner, and it's really important that they get to know each other and develop some capacity to have an effective relationship.

　　Last night, Trump blasted the media coverage⁵, tweeting: "Fake news story of secret dinner with Putin is sick."

　　The pro-Kremlin Russian lawmaker Alexei Pushkov used the exact same language, describing reports about a -- quote -- "secret dinner" as sick.

　　And, today, German Chancellor⁶ Angela Merkel's spokesman called these dinner conversations normal.

　　It is the fundamental point of the G20 meeting that, alongside working meetings,

　　there is room and opportunity for multiple informal contacts. And that is certainly the point of such a dinner.

　　But what is unusual is that, since there were no other U.S. officials present,

　　and the translator was Putin's, the U.S. officials who work on Russia have no official notes.

　　The people down the line cannot do their job if they don't have an exact sense of what our president said,

　　what the other guy said, and how they can then pursue these issues with the Russian government.

　　The dinner talk came on the same day as Trump and Putin's only official meeting. That talk lasted more than two hours.

　　The next day, having spoken with Trump at least twice, Putin praised Trump personally.

　　As for personal relations, I think that they have been established. I don't know how this will sound, but I will say it how I see it:

　　The Trump on television is very different from the real person. He's very direct. He perceives his conversation partner very well. He's a fairly quick thinker.

　　It is that kind of praise that many here in Washington find strange and concerning.

　　Multiple administration officials tell the NewsHour they have still not received a report from the official Trump-Putin meeting, let alone the dinner conversation. That is not business as usual.

　　President Trump has put together, I think, the weakest policy on Russia in 70 years.

　　It's why you have seen so many people concerned by this one conversation. What did President Trump say to President Putin?

　　People in our government need to know the answers to those questions, and we as citizens need those answers as well.

　　A dinnertime conversation might not be out of the ordinary, except the president's 2016 campaign is under investigation⁷ for possibly colluding with Russia.

　　And the man he was talking to is accused by U.S. intelligence of ordering the covert⁸ effort to help Trump get elected.

　　For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Nick Schifrin in Washington.

　　Late today, the Senate Judiciary Committee said that Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort will testify next Wednesday about their meeting with a Russian lawyer last summer.

　　The president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, goes before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday. undefined

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。

3 spouses   

n.配偶，夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jobs are available for spouses on campus and in the community. 校园里和社区里有配偶可做的工作。 来自辞典例句
• An astonishing number of spouses-most particularly in the upper-income brackets-have no close notion of their husbands'paychecks. 相当大一部分妇女——特别在高收入阶层——并不很了解他们丈夫的薪金。 来自辞典例句

4 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

5 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

6 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

7 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

8 covert   

adj.隐藏的；暗地里的

参考例句：

• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。
• The army carried out covert surveillance of the building for several months.军队对这座建筑物进行了数月的秘密监视。