President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to set up a working group to combat cyberattacks during their Friday meeting at the G-20 summit.
Russian state media outlet TASS cites Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who attended the meeting, as saying cybersecurity was discussed during the session that was slated for 35 minutes but ended up lasting more than 2 hours.
"It was agreed that all of these issues, including anti-terrorism efforts, fight against organized crime, and hacker activities in any of their manifestations will be a focus of bilateral Russian-U.S. cooperation," Lavrov said. "A bilateral working group will be set up for these [issues]."
Lavrov, who was infamously photographed with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak smiling during an Oval Office meeting with Trump in May, added that cybersecurity needs to be addressed amid an increase of risks and threats.
"This sphere is becoming more and more risky and generates threats, including threats of terrorism and of other types of organized crime and threats to normal functioning of society, in particular, children's pornography, pedophilia, the so-called suicide networks," he said.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also attended Friday's meeting and confirmed the U.S.-Russia cooperation on cybersecurity.
"The two leaders also acknowledge the challenges of cyber threats and interference in the democratic processes of the United States and other countries, and agreed to explore creating a framework around which the two countries can work together to better understand how to deal with these cyber threats," Tillerson said, reports The Hill.
It was also reported that Trump asked Putin about allegations that Russia tried to influence the U.S. presidential election last year. Putin denied that the Russian government played any role.
Two California Democrats, Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell, took to Twitter to denounce the cybersecurity agreement:
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.