Trump and Putin to meet for the first time in May
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his colleague Donald Trump may meet for the first time at the end of May, Kommersant newspaper reports citing sources from the governments of the two countries.
According to the sources, Moscow and Washington are presently negotiating to organize a meeting at the end of May in the territory of one of the European countries. The publication’s sources specified that the schedule for a meeting of the presidents began to be worked out more carefully after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Moscow in mid-April.
It is expected that Trump will be in Europe from May 25 to 27. He will attend the NATO summit in Brussels and the G7 summit in Italy. After that, as the newspaper writes, the American president can "bounce" into one of the third countries, to which Putin will then fly.
At the same time, an informed source from RBC news agency said the day prior that Tillerson's visit did not bring clarity to the question of organizing a meeting of the presidents. The American side stated that it must be carefully worked out, but without specific parameters, he said.
The Press Secretary for the Russian President, Dmitry Peskov, commenting on this information, told TASS news agency that there is no specific groundwork for the organization of the meeting.
According to one of the publication’s Russian government sources, contact between representatives of the Kremlin and the White House regarding an agreement on the date and venue of a meeting between Putin and Trump have "never stopped", despite the complexity of relations between Moscow and Washington.
"A lot of work has been done by presidential aide Yuri Ushakov and a number of high-ranking diplomats," the source said.
According to the source, this was not affected by the tightening of sanctions against Russia, nor the Pentagon's bombardment of the airbase in Syria.
Trump and Putin have not met since Trump’s Inauguration on January 20. However, their first telephone conversation took place in late January. The politicians discussed the situation in Ukraine and Syria, as well as the fight against international terrorism. The parties did not raise the issue of sanctions.
After Rex Tillerson’s visit to Moscow, Trump positively assessed its results. The U.S. Secretary of State met with Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Politico, citing a White House representative, wrote that after all the meetings Trump called Tillerson and informed him that he had done a "wonderful job" and "showed confidence."
Officially speaking of relations with Putin, Trump did not give specific forecasts, stressing that he would act on the basis of political dialogue between the countries.