As reported by Reuters, A deal has been struck for an upcoming summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and contenders for a 3rd-party meeting place are currently under consideration.
Key quotes
“Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, speaking after Putin met U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton in the Kremlin, said the summit would take place in a mutually convenient third country and that several more weeks were needed to prepare for it. Moscow and Washington will announce the time and place of the summit on Thursday. In Washington, Trump said their meeting likely would take place after a July 11-12 summit of NATO leaders he is due to attend.
Trump confirmed that Helsinki was a possible site. Other officials said the Russians were pushing for the summit to be in the Austrian capital of Vienna.
Trump listed Syria and Ukraine among the many subjects he said they would discuss. His list did not include warnings from U.S. intelligence officials that Russia will try to interfere in U.S. congressional elections in November. The two men last met in November on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Vietnam. After those talks, Trump said he believed Putin’s denials Russia had meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election – remarks Trump later backed away from.
“It is entirely possible for a U.S.-Russia summit to be constructive, but I’m very concerned that after his recent performance at the G7 in Canada, President Trump will once again clash with our closest allies at the upcoming NATO summit, only to then engage in fawning photo ops with President Putin afterwards,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons said in a statement.”
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