Putin, Trump to hold first ‘full-fledged’ meeting on July 7 – Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump will hold their first full-fledged meeting at the G20 summit on July 7, the Kremlin spokesman said. Dmitry Peskov specified it will not merely be a brief contact on the sidelines.
The meeting is “planned as a full-fledged ‘sit down’ meeting,” Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
The G20 summit will take place July 7-8 in Hamburg, Germany. During the summit, Trump is to meet Putin face-to-face for the first time. Previously the leaders have spoken only by phone.
READ MORE:Putin-Trump meeting at G20 equally important for Russia, US & intl stability – Kremlin
The White House has also confirmed that a “normal bilateral meeting” between the leaders is to take place on Friday afternoon, according to Reuters.
Earlier, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said the long-awaited meeting is scheduled for July 7, but did not specify its format.
Conflicts in Syria and Ukraine will be among other issues on the agenda during the meeting between the two leaders, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated.
“Of course, both Syria and Ukraine will be in the spotlight, but the agenda is not limited to them,” Ryabkov told reporters in Moscow, adding that Putin and Trump are also to discuss strategic stability, as well as a number of bilateral issues.
“At least we believe that the American side will be ready for such dialogue, and we will see how the conversation really goes. Eventually, everything depends on the leaders,” Ryabkov said.
Relations between Moscow and Washington are currently “at the zero mark,” the Kremlin aide said, while pointing out that phone conversations aren’t enough to improve the situation.
Russian-American relations further deteriorated after Washington launched 59 Tomahawk missiles at Syria’s Shayrat Airbase near the city of Homs on April 7. The move came in retaliation to what Washington claimed was a Syrian government-orchestrated chemical weapons attack on Khan Shaykhun, which killed dozens of people. Damascus has firmly and repeatedly denied those allegations, while Moscow has repeatedly called for an international investigation to be conducted into the incident.
The populations of both nations see each other as foes, according to the latest polls. While 69 percent of Russian respondents consider America among hostile countries, according to a poll conducted by Russian research center Levada, a third of Americans surveyed said they view Russia as “unfriendly,” and a fifth regard it as an “enemy,” pollster YouGov has found.
