Russian presidential aide says place of session will not be in the US or Russia, after meeting between Putin and John Bolton
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is an agreement a period and place to hold their first official summit, a senior Russian official announced on Wednesday.
The Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists that the summit will be held in a country other than Russia or the United State. The date and location of the session will be announced on Thursday, Ushakov said.
The announcement followed a one-on-one meeting between the US national security consultant, John Bolton, and Putin at the Kremlin on Wednesday, where the two sides discussed the summit, nuclear arms control and other bilateral matter, according to the Russian side.
Bolton confirmed that the meeting would take place and said Moscow and Washington would announce the details ” simultaneously “. The summit will be the two leaders' first encounter since they met at the G20 summit in July 2017.
In Washington, Trump suggested Vienna or Helsinki as possible venues. He told reporters that he had watched the Bolton-Putin interview on television but had yet to receive a” full report “.
” It would look like we will probably be meeting in the not too distant future and I've said it from day one getting along with Russia and China and with everybody is a very good thing ,” the president said in the Oval Office.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday evening, Bolton defended the meeting, saying:” I don't think it's unusual for the leaders of Russia and the US to meet ,” he said.
Trump and Putin” suppose now is the time for them to get together”, Bolton said.” Direct communications between Trump and Putin is in the best interests of the United Country .”
Asked about what the summit could achieve he said he was not sure anything concrete would follow. The” fact of the summit is a deliverable”, he said.
Bolton, a foreign policy hawk, did not veer widely from stated US policy. He said US policy had not changed on the imposition of sanctions after Russia seized Crimea, and, asked about Moscow's interference in US elections, said:” I guess Trump is going to raise the full range of issues between Russia and the United Country, perfectly .”
Asked whether the US would recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea, he said:” That is not the position of the United Country .”
Bolton, accompanied by the US ambassador to Moscow, Jon Huntsman, also gratified the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and an adviser, Yuri Ushakov, whose portfolio includes US policy.
” I “re saying” with regret that Russian-American relations are not in the best shape ,” Putin told Bolton,” and I've already said this repeatedly in public and am saying this to you now: I think that this is largely a result of the acute internal political struggle within the US itself .”
He added:” Your arrival in Moscow has given us hope that we can make the first steps to reviving full relations between our governments .”
Russia has said it is open to a summit between Putin and Trump, and it has been reported that White House and Kremlin officials have met in recent months to induce preparations. Vienna and Helsinki have been suggested as potential venues for the meeting.
The two sides have been at odds over issues including Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 US election, the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, cybersecurity, Nato policy and nuclear weapons. Relations between both countries are widely seen as being at their worst since the cold war.
Bolton has previously called for a tougher US stance against Iran, North Korea and Russia. But Trump has charted a course more favourable to Putin, eluding a US foreign policy establishment that has widely denounced Russia for allegedly hacking US political parties and spreading disinformation during the course of its 2016 presidential campaign.
Russia and the US have closed consulates and expelled the thousands of diplomats in tit-for-tat actions during the course of its diplomatic fallout.
Trump and Putin met twice at a G2 0 satisfying Hamburg last year, and had a discussion over dinner with merely a Russian translator also present. Trump said the leaders discussed adoption policy.
Expectations for any summit between Putin and Trump are modest, especially as meaningful sanctions relief for Russia would require the consent of the US Congress.
Speaking to a Senate committee on Wednesday, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo said:” The chairman is looking forward to an opportunity to find those handful of places where we can have productive dialogues that lead to improvements for each of our two countries.
” I think we have our eyes wide open that that space is pretty small ,” Pompeo added.” They don't share our values in the same way the European countries do. But I think the president is hopeful we can reduce the temperature and reduce the risk for America .”
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