Washington requested Trump-Putin meeting – report

Washington has reportedly requested a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, according to Russian newspaper Kommersant. If confirmed, a meeting could take place on the sidelines of the upcoming G20 summit.

Citing a US State Department source, Kommersant said on Monday that the likelihood of a meeting between the two leaders is high. Washington is now waiting on Moscow’s response, the report claimed.

Such a meeting could potentially take place on the sidelines of the upcoming G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, at the end of next month.

The Kommersant report comes a day before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday. Pompeo and Lavrov are expected to clash over the ongoing Venezuela crisis and Iran’s nuclear program, as well as the US’ recent withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

Russian Deputy FM Sergey Ryabkov told RIA Novosti that Pompeo and Lavrov will likely also discuss the rumored Putin-Trump meeting.

The report comes less than two weeks after Trump and Putin discussed trade, arms control, and geopolitical issues in a lengthy phone conversation. Although cleared of all accusations of ‘Russian collusion’ by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report, Trump was nevertheless excoriated by the American media for the phone call, as he was for meeting with Putin in Helsinki last summer.

RT has reached out to the US State Department for comment on the unconfirmed meeting plans, and is awaiting a response.

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