MOSCOW – The date and location of a summit between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will be announced at on Thursday, the Kremlin said.
Trump’s national security advisor John Bolton visited Moscow on Wednesday to meet Putin and discuss the details of the encounter between the two leaders, set to take place in a third country.
“The announcement will be made at 3:00 pm (1200 GMT),” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in comments carried by news agencies. He declined to comment on US media reports that the summit would be held in Helsinki.
US-Russian relations have hit lows not seen since the Cold War over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, its involvement in eastern Ukraine and allegations of political meddling, as well as disagreement over the Syrian conflict.
Trump said on Wednesday he expected the discussions to be wide-ranging.
“I think we’ll be talking about Syria. I think we’ll be talking about Ukraine. I think we’ll be talking about many other subjects. And we’ll see what happens. You never know about meetings what happens, right?” the president said.
“I think a lot of good things can come with meetings with people,” he added.
Bolton said at a news conference in Moscow, however, that the lifting of US sanctions would be off the table, as would any recognition of a Russian Crimea.
Since coming to power last year, Trump has sought to improve relations with Putin amid tensions between Moscow and the West.
Trump said this month that Russia should be re-admitted to the G7 group of industrialised democracies from which it was suspended after annexing Crimea in 2014.
That comment came at a summit which ended in sharp disagreement between Trump and his G7 allies.
The last, brief meeting between Putin and Trump took place in November 2017 in Vietnam during an APEC summit.
Trump is due to attend the July 11 and 12 NATO summit in Brussels before heading to Britain to meet with Prime Minister Theresa May and Queen Elizabeth II on July 13.
