It's the second day of high-stakes diplomacy for Obama, who arrived here Saturday to an inauspicious welcome: no red-carpeted stairs for Air Force One and open quarreling on the tarmac between Chinese and US officials over press access. Other leaders arriving for the G20 here were greeted with a far grander welcome.
The rancor continued throughout Saturday as Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to cement a carbon reduction agreement and haggle over longstanding disputes like cybersecurity and maritime aggression.
Obama said Sunday the US would never apologize for its insistence upon press access, but said he understood why Chinese officials may have chafed at the Americans' demands.
"We don't leave our values and ideals behind when we take these trips. It can cause some friction," Obama said following his meeting with Theresa May, the newly installed British prime minister. At the same time, Obama cautioned against inflating the incident.
"I wouldn't over crank the significance of it," he said. "We've got a lot of planes and helicopters and a lot of cars and a lot of guys and, you know, if you're a host country, sometimes it may feel a little bit much."
