Ties \u2014 or the lack thereof \u2014 to Russia have been a recurring theme of President Donald Trump’s time in office, between his repeated claims of \u00ab\u00a0no collusion\u00a0\u00bb and his repeated one-on-one meetings with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Now, Trump’s\u2026<\/b>
\nTies \u2014 or the lack thereof \u2014 to Russia have been a recurring theme of President Donald Trump’s time in office, between his repeated claims of \u00ab\u00a0no collusion\u00a0\u00bb and his repeated one-on-one meetings with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Now, Trump’s relationship with Putin is right back in the spotlight, as the Kremlin has now confirmed that Trump and Putin will meet in Argentina on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
Trump threatened to cancel the G20 meeting with Putin in an interview with The Washington Post, citing Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine in the Azov Sea as the potential reason.
\u00ab\u00a0Maybe I won’t have the meeting. Maybe I won’t even have the meeting,\u00a0\u00bb Trump told the Post. \u00ab\u00a0I don’t like that aggression. I don’t want that aggression at all.\u00a0\u00bb
The Kremlin confirmed on Thursday that the two leaders would be going ahead with the meeting, though, according to CNN.
\u00ab\u00a0First of all, questions related to bilateral relations, we need to think about how to start talking on matters of bilateral relations, on matters of strategic security and disarmament and on regional conflicts,\u00a0\u00bb said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists at a briefing. According to CNN, Peskov said that they had gotten confirmation from the White House, along with the full agenda of the meeting.
The Trump-Putin meeting will take place on Saturday morning local time, according to a document obtained by Reuters. According to Reuters’ reporting, the two will discuss any number of issues in the approximately hour-long stretch of time budgeted for the meeting, including hot topics such as Syria, Iran, and North Korea.
The question on everyone’s mind, however, will be whether Trump will bring up Ukraine in his meeting with Putin. As The New York Times wrote, Trump waited to give a response to the reports that Russia had seized multiple Ukrainian ships, and his response did not condemn Russia for its aggression.
\u201cWe do not like what\u2019s happening either way,\u201d Trump told reporters on Monday, according to the Times . \u201cAnd hopefully it will get straightened out.\u201d
More to come…<\/p>\n