Carly Fiorina Met With Putin in a Green Room, Despite Zinging Trump for Doing So

— -- One of the best zingers of the fourth GOP debate tonight was when Carly Fiorina took a jab at Donald Trump about Vladimir Putin, noting that she’s also met the Russian leader -- "not in a green room for a show, but in a private meeting.”

But the former Hewlett-Packard CEO and Republican presidential candidate actually did meet with Putin in a green room.

In 2001, Fiorina and Putin met for 45 minutes in a green room at the APEC CEO Summit in Beijing, where both were speakers.

Fiorina’s campaign confirmed that the meeting took place in a green room, but Press Secretary Anna Epstein drew a distinction between one at a conference and a green room at a TV show.

“Yes she met him in a green room, but not in a green room before a show,” Epstein said in an email to ABC News. “It was before a conference.”

Fiorina’s comment came in response to Trump saying that he "got to know [Putin] very well because we were both on '60 minutes.'"

Fiorina often plays up her foreign policy credentials, posturing that she's met with more world leaders -- with the possible exception of Hillary Clinton -- than any other candidate running for the White House in 2016.

During the debate, Fiorina went on to explain that despite having met Putin, she would not talk with the Russian leader at the present because she believes we are speaking to him from a "position of weakness" under the current administration.

"I wouldn't talk to him for a while," Fiorina said. "But I would do this, I would start rebuilding the six fleet right under his nose, rebuild the missile defense program in Poland right under his nose, I would conduct very aggressive military exercises in the Baltic states, so he understood we would protect our NATO allies and would-be allies and I might also put in a few thousand troops into Germany, not to start a war, but make sure Putin understands the United States will stand with our allies."