President Donald Trump will meet his Russian counterpart on Saturday for a two-hour meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Vladimir Putin’s presidential aide has said.
Yuri Ushakov said that the pair will meet at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Buenos Aires to discuss strategic stability, Syria, Iran and North Korea, state agency RIA Novosti reported.
The White House has not yet confirmed the meeting, which was initially reported by Reuters, but if it goes ahead, it will be the first sit-down meeting between them since the time they met in July.
That meeting in Finland only had the leaders’ translators present and caused controversy as Trump rejected the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusions of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“We believe that in a situation when the Americans have withdrawn from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and signals that they will stop their participation in the INF Treaty, certainly, it is very important to discuss together the options of a renewed system of ensuring international security.”
Ushakov added that both sides want “to lead these relations out of the deadlock and start looking for ways to normalize them.”
National Security Advisor John Bolton told reporters Tuesday that Trump wanted to discuss security, arms control and regional issues with Putin.
“I think it will be a continuation of their discussion in Helsinki,” he said, according to CNN.
It is unclear with the situation in Ukraine would be discussed in Saturday’s meeting.
Trump had appeared to threaten to cancel talks with Putin after Russian ships fired on and seized Ukrainian vessels last Saturday. Trump had said he was “not happy about it all,” adding that “we do not like what’s happening either way.”
Putin said on Wednesday that the incident was orchestrated by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to bolster flagging ratings.
“It was without doubt a provocation,” Putin said, according to The Guardian.