Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin have frosty encounter in Lima

Not so for Malcolm Turnbull, who enjoyed almost an hour with the outgoing US President in Obama’s last bilateral chat

An icy stare and a brisk handshake for Obama and Putin.

There was no translation required for this frosty encounter between Barack Obama and old mate Vladimir Putin as the two crossed paths on the sidelines of the Asia- Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Peru yesterday.

Perhaps not since the 1961 ­Vienna meeting between John F Kennedy and Nikita Kruschev — where the pair tore shreds off each other — had two super power leaders put on such a public display of disaffection.

The outgoing US President made no attempt to hide his hostility. The Russian leader made even less effort to disguise the fact he didn’t care.

They could barely manage a handshake through the icy stare.

Mr Obama later said he didn’t even bother raising the issue of the alleged election hacking incident.

“As usual, it was a candid and courteous meeting but it was very clear about the strong differences we had on policy,” he said.

“The issue of the elections did not come up because that’s behind us and I was focused in this brief discussion on moving forward.”

Mr Obama had a crack about the Russian and Syrian bombing of civilians in Aleppo and hoped that something could be done to stop it before his term was up.

Mr Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said after the meeting that there were no plans for a second meeting.

Mr Obama with Malcolm Turnbull in Peru.

Then, in a statement, he ­appeared to remind Mr Obama that his term was up very soon.

And that was the end of it. It is unlikely the two men will talk again.

Not so for Malcolm Turnbull, who also had an encounter with the Russian President.

All that would be said about that meeting is that it, too, was “brief”.

At least the Prime Minister got to sit next to Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his wife at dinner the night before at Lima’s famous Parque de las Aguas — which is apparently the world’s largest water fountain located in a park.

For 90-odd minutes they talked about the gamut of things world leaders talk about.

Energy, regional security. Children, grandchildren.

That morning, Mr Turnbull had enjoyed a breakfast of eggs and bacon with Canadian rock star Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Belmond Miraflores Park hotel.

Who says summit season isn’t social.

The main event for Mr Turnbull was his bilateral meeting with Mr Obama, billed as the last official bilateral meeting Mr Obama would be having as President of the US.

But we are not sure that is true. The Canadians were later seen sneaking off with the Americans to another room.

Either way, the Turnbull- Obama meeting was considerable for such an event. It ran for a full 50 minutes.

Assurances were made that the US-Australia alliance wouldn’t wither on the vine under Donald Trump. APEC was over but the world would go on.

For Mr Obama, it was just the start of the long goodbye. For Mr Turnbull, it was a long flight home.

Various APEC heads.