US President Donald Trump’s top aides had been resisting his request for a one-on-one summit with the Russian President Vladimir Putin ever since he met his Russian counterpart in Vietnam last year, says a new report.
Citing senior aides from the National Security Council, The Washington Post reported on Friday that Trump was privately asking them to set up an official meeting since he sat down with Putin on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific summit at Vietnam in November.
The paper said they were resisting the request and ignoring Trump by waiting to see “if he raises it again."
“After that meeting, the president said he wanted to invite Putin to the White House. We ignored it,” said one official.
At the time, they opposed the president, because they didn’t view his interest in a summit as an order to set one up, according to the report.
Trump’s enthusiasm for the face-to-face meeting eventually became public in March, when Moscow revealed he extended an invitation in a phone call with Putin.
He is now expected to meet with Putin next month while he is in Europe for a NATO summit; the newspaper cited a senior administration official and two diplomats familiar with his plan.
Trump himself told reporters on Friday that “it’s possible” he would meet with his Russian counterpart this summer.
The summit— if happens — would be the first of its kind since the relations between Washington and Moscow plunged to historic lows in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.
Washington and its European allies accuse Moscow of having a hand in the conflict, but Russia denies the allegation.
Senior officials at the State Department said a potential summit between the two leaders could help resolve tensions over Ukraine, Syria and cyber security issues.
Some other officials, however, believed a summit between Trump and Putin is premature.
“There’s no doubt that both sides would be very interested in seeing this summit materialize, but it’s not going to materialize out of thin air,” said a senior State Department official on condition of anonymity. “There is a lot of work that has to be done ahead of a meeting like this.”
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