US White House certified on Tuesday that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had an additional, previously undisclosed chat at this month’s G20 summit in Hamburg.

After a brief greeting at the start of the two-day summit and a two-hour bilateral meeting with their foreign ministers on July 7, Trump and Putin also chatted over dinner on the final night of the summit, an official said.

A White House official told AFP that “Towards the end of a couples-only social dinner at the G20, the president spoke to Putin at the dinner.”

The disclosure of their meeting has raised various questions on what the pairs talked about and why the meeting was not made known earlier

The Trump administration has been attacked with the allegations that the president’s closest advisors collided with Russia to win the 2016 election.

Trump’s eldest son Donald Jr recently released emails showing he held a meeting during the campaign with Kremlin-connected figures, hoping to get dirt on his dad’s election rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump on Tuesday used Twitter to blast the suggestion that there was anything improper about his dinner chat with Putin.

“Fake News story of secret dinner with Putin is ‘sick.’ All G20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew!” he declared.

“The Fake News is becoming more and more dishonest! Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!”

A second White House official denied there was a “second meeting” between Trump and Putin, describing a “brief conversation at the end of a dinner.”

“The assumption that White House has tried to ‘hide’ a second meeting is false and petty,” the official said.

“At the dinner, President Trump was seated between Mrs. Abe, wife of the Prime Minister of Japan, and Mrs. Macri, wife of the President of Argentina, while Mrs. Trump was seated next to President Putin.”

“During the course of the dinner, all the leaders circulated throughout the room and spoke with one another freely. President Trump spoke with many leaders during the course of the evening. As the dinner was concluding, President Trump went over to Mrs. Trump, where he spoke briefly with President Putin.”

The White House also rejected the statement that Trump was not with any other US officials and used Putin’s translator.

“Each couple was allowed one translator. The American translator accompanying President Trump spoke Japanese. When President Trump spoke to President Putin, the two leaders used the Russian translator, since the American translator does not speak Russian.”

PUNCH