MOSCOW – US President Donald Trump proposed a White House summit when hecalled Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, prior to the massexpulsion of Russian diplomats from the US, a top Kremlin aide said Monday.
“Trump proposed holding a meeting at the White House in Washington,”Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, told reporters.
On March 20, Trump called Putin to congratulate him on his re-election, andthe US leader told reporters afterwards that the two would “probably gettogether in the not-too-distant future.”
In calling Putin, Trump ignored explicit advice from his national securityadvisers not to do so, The Washington Post has reported, quoting officialsfamiliar with the call.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Monday the two leadershad discussed a bilateral meeting “at a number of potential venues,including the White House.”
“We have nothing further to add at this time,” she said.
A senior US administration official said separately that “it’s obviously intheir interest” to publicise the summit invitation as Putin’s risks deeperinternational isolation after the Skripal attack.
The official added that planning for the controversial meeting had not yetbegun.
Ushakov also said that the two sides had not had any “concrete discussions”about the summit since that rare Trump-Putin phone conversation.
“It was Trump himself who proposed holding the meeting,” Ushakov said.
“But after that a new breakdown in our bilateral ties has taken place, thediplomats have been expelled.”
He expressed the hope that Russia and the United States could return to”constructive and serious dialogue.”
After the call, Washington expelled 60 Russian diplomats and shut down aRussian consulate in Seattle, joining Britain’s allies in responding to thepoisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia inthe English city of Salisbury on March 4.
Moscow responded by sending home 60 US diplomats and closing Washington’sconsulate in Saint Petersburg.
Washington has, however, said Russia is free to apply to accredit morediplomats to replace those expelled. – APP/AFP