Putin ready to meet with Trump at G20 summit in Japan or in other countries

SOCHI, May 15. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the nearest chance to meet with US counterpart Donald Trump will be at the G20 summit in the Japanese city of Osaka in June. "As far as I understand, we will have the nearest opportunity to meet with President Trump during the G20 summit in Japan," Putin said at a news conference on Wednesday after his talks with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen. Asked by reporters whether a summit meeting between the Russian and US presidents might be held in the Austrian capital, Putin remarked, "As long as the US side stands ready to continue contacts in this, special manner, … we are open to these negotiations in any location, including Vienna." According to the Russian president, "Vienna is a good place for holding highest-level talks." The only full-format talks between Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Donald Trump of the United States were held in July 2018 in Helsinki. The two leaders had a number of meetings on the margins of large-scale international events in 2017-2018. They were supposed to meet at the Group of Twenty summit in Buenos Aires in late November - early December 2018, but the meeting was cancelled by Trump at a moment’s notice over the incident with Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait. Nevertheless, they had a brief talk on the sidelines of the event. On May 3, Putin and Trump had a 90-minute telephone conversation requested by the US side. On May 14, the Russian leader held a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Sochi following the latter’s talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Read more