Putin ready for a meeting with Trump, says Lavrov

Says such a summit was not currently being discussed but the Kremlin hopes that a meeting at the White House would materialise.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is “ready for a meeting” with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday. Mr. Lavrov added that such a summit was not currently being discussed but the Kremlin hopes that a meeting at the White House would materialise.

“President Putin is ready for such a meeting,” Mr. Lavrov said in an interview with state news agency RIA Novosti. “We are proceeding from the fact that the U.S. President in a telephone conversation — that was made public, there is no secret about this — sent such an invitation and said that he would be happy to see (Putin) in the White House and then to meet him during a reciprocal visit.”

Call in March

“Since Trump suggested this, we proceed from the fact that he will make this concrete,” he added.

Mr. Trump proposed a White House summit when he called Mr. Putin in March, prior to the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from the U.S. The proposal has not moved forward since relations between the U.S. and Russia deteriorated further over an alleged chemical attack in Syria.

“He returned to this topic a couple of times, so we let our American colleagues know that we do not want to impose, but we also do not want to be impolite, and that considering that President Trump made this proposal, we proceed from the position that he will make it concrete,” said Mr. Lavrov.

“I would simply turn your attention to the fact that Donald Trump after this phone conversation has said several times in both tweets and in words that it is necessary to resolve issues with Russia, we want to have good relations with Russia, this is better than not having good relations, and that only a fool thinks otherwise,” he said. “We also hear this.”

Mr. Lavrov also said Moscow welcomed an expected summit between Mr. Trump and Kim Jong-un. “This would be a step away from the prospect of a military crisis and a military solution to the problem that is the Korean peninsula,” he said.