I haven’t seen any explanation from him even though there are stories from that time with quotes from him on the topics they discussed at that meeting (he downplayed accusations of torture and explained that people had been sentenced to death for torturing people).

The EC spokespeople tried to downplay the incident.

After the incident in Turkey it looks like Ursula claimed that was sexism but I haven’t seen examples of her making that claim for the subsequent incidents. It seems like she has ignored the later snubs.