By TATIANA PROPHET

On Monday July 16, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a joint press conference after their closed-door meeting, which had lasted two hours.

Read the full transcript here.

About halfway through his short opener, Trump said he had raised the issue of Russian interference in "our elections."

"I felt this was a message best delivered in person. Spent a great deal of time talking about it," he said. "President Putin may very well want to address it and very strongly, because he feels very strongly about it."

He then talked about Syria, calling it a "complex" crisis, and stating that the United States would not allow Iran, Russia's ever cozier ally, to benefit from "our successful campaign against ISIS."

The very first question, from Alexei Meshkov of Interfax Information Agency, was regarding Trump's very vocal opposition to a Russian pipeline to Germany, in which the EU powerhouse would, in Trump's words, become a "hostage" due to its dependence on Russian oil. The reporter implied there was perhaps a political rationale for Trump's stance, but Trump came back to say the superpowers would be competing for the world's natural gas consumers.

Putin then weighed in on Trump's opposition to the pipeline, saying there was "space for cooperation here."