Power Blooming: What Flowers Global Leaders Prefer - 22.05.2018, Sputnik International

The German tabloid Bild saw a "hidden meaning" in the bouquet Russian President Vladimir Putin gave German Chancellor Angela Merkel during their recent meeting in Sochi on May 18, 2018. "It looks like a courtesy, but in fact it's an affront," he argued, claiming that the flowers were supposed to remind Merkel that she was a woman.

According to the author of the publication, heads of state are supposed to shake hands during a meeting and not present each other with flowers.

However, world leaders have resorted to flower power in the international arena quite often.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a bouquet to German Chancellor Angela Merkel during their meeting in Sochi in May 2018.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his sister Kim Yo Jong look on next to South Korean President Moon Jae In after a flower presentation by children ahead of the inter-Korean summit at the truce village of Panmunjom in South Korea on April 27, 2018.

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Orange Revolution heroine Yulia Tymoshenko smiles as she holds a bouquet of flowers depicting a map of Ukraine, presented to her in the parliament in Kiev, Ukraine, in 2007.

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Former US President Barack Obama is presented with flowers as he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrive at Yangon International Airport in Yangon, Myanmar, on Air Force One, in November 2012. This is the first visit to Myanmar by a sitting US president.

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Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović receives flowers from Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Sochi, Russia, in October 2017.

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Then French Prime Minister Manuel Valls received a bouquet of flowers when he visited a Roman Catholic Church housing Iraqi refugees in Amman, Jordan, in October 2015.

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Then Israeli President Shimon Peres kisses former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the cheek as he gives her a bouquet of flowers at the end of a joint press conference after their meeting in Jerusalem on March 3, 2009.

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe receives a bouquet of flowers from his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina before a meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in September 2014.

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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during their meeting in Kiev in 2014.

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Then Czech President Vaclav Klaus and his wife Livia presents flowers to Denmark's Queen Margrethe prior to a lunch meeting at Fredensborg Palace in November 2006.

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Former Chilean president Sebastian Pinera and his spouse are greeted with flower bouquets as they arrive at Hanoi airport, Vietnam, on March 21, 2012.

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Then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev meets then Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in his residence in the Moscow region in January 2010.

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Poland's former Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Italy's former Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, take their bouquets of flowers after addressing the media during an EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, in 2014. On that day the European Union leaders nominated Mogherini to become the 28-nation bloc's new foreign policy chief for the next five years. EU leaders also elected Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to succeed European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in December as the EU summit's chairman.