President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonBiden leads Trump by 36 points nationally among Latinos: poll Democratic super PAC to hit Trump in battleground states over coronavirus deaths Battle lines drawn on precedent in Supreme Court fight MORE met together for about an hour Wednesday at the White House, in a gathering certain to intensify speculation the former first lady is readying a presidential campaign.

“As is well known, President Obama and Secretary Clinton enjoy getting together in person on a regular basis,” a White House official said. “This afternoon they met privately in the Oval Office for about an hour to catch up and enjoy an informal discussion on a wide range of issues.”

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Clinton was in Washington on Wednesday to give a national security speech at Georgetown University, where she argued women should have a greater role in setting national security policy.

Clinton said female defense ministers had proven they could “defend their countries as well as any man.”

Clinton is the leading contender for the Democratic nomination for the White House.

If she chooses to run, it will continue a delicate dance with Obama, the president she would hope to succeed.

Clinton will want to make use of Obama’s campaign network but will also need to be in close communication with the White House, as she assesses her own positions on the campaign trail. That will make trust and communication with Obama vital.

During a TV interview earlier this year, the president said he and his former secretary of State had become “really, really good friends” and that she would be a “very effective” president.

“Hillary and I, we're buddies,” Obama said during an appearance on “Live with Kelly and Michael” in May. “I think because we ran in the longest primary in history and our staffs, I think, were doing battle politically, I think the perception was that this was always kind of a marriage of convenience when she came in as secretary of State.”

But Obama said he had come to admire Clinton “as soon as she got here,” because “she couldn't have been more effective” and “more loyal.”

The last known visit by Clinton to the White House was a lunch meeting with Obama in May, but the pair last publicly crossed paths in September at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York City.

That appearance came shortly after Clinton's interview with The Atlantic this summer, where she levied criticism against the president's handling of Syria. In the interview, Clinton said that she would have armed the Syrian opposition two years ago and suggested failing to do so had enabled the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against [Syrian president Bashar] Assad — there were Islamists; there were secularists; there was everything in the middle — the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled,” Clinton said.

Clinton subsequently called Obama to tell him the remark was not intended as an attack on him or his policies, according to a spokesman.