Moscow, Russia. Much speculation has been attributed to a supposed Trump-Putin summit, but the closest yet to setting a date came in an interview on Russian television news with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today, who now is hopeful July in Hamburg will be possible.
Moscow is preparing a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, stated this in an interview with Russian TV channel “Mir”.
“You see, both we and the Americans need the meeting, as I understand it, not in order to manufacture an external effect on somebody and say: “Well, what a sensation, they talked for so long, and finally it was held,” Lavrov said.
He noted that due to the influence of Russia and the United States on international stability and security, “concrete results will, of course, be expected from this meeting…and for this to happen, it needs to be well prepared,” Minister Lavrov added. “And we are doing so now.”
Lavrov noted that the American president is committed to normalizing relations “in the common interest.” Despite the fact that “statements of diametrically opposite content have come from the various representatives of the Trump administration”, Moscow is oriented only toward the “acting person”. Lavrov recalled that Trump gave high marks to the visit of State Department head Rex Tillerson to Moscow, as well as a recent telephone conversation with Putin.
The telephone conversation Putin and Trump was held on May 2. The leaders of the two countries discussed bilateral relations in the context of international issues; the main topics were the situation in Syria and a future meeting. Following the meeting, Lavrov said that the “next opportunity” for the meeting of the presidents of Russia and the United States was the G20 summit in Hamburg in July.