‘Certainly meeting’ or ‘probably not’? Mixed signals over Trump-Putin encounter in Paris
US President Donald Trump has said that he “probably won’t” meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Paris later this week, while the Kremlin signaled that the two will “certainly” meet for a walking meeting.
"We will be meeting at the G20 and probably we'll have meetings after that," Trump told the media at Joint Base Andrews. "I'm not sure that we'll have a meeting in Paris. Probably not."
Both Putin and Trump are expected in Paris for the centenary commemoration of the end of the First World War.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov for his part has insisted that the Russian and US leaders will “definitely” meet in Paris. While a full-fledged meeting will not fit the format of the event, Putin and Trump are expected to talk “on the move” and decide when they would hold proper talks, he added.
Earlier, Yuri Ushakov, a presidential aide to Putin, had also said that the two leaders might meet in Paris for a short meeting, but that a “long and thorough” discussion would be had at the upcoming G20 Summit in Argentina.
Trump and Putin last met on July 16 in Helsinki, where they discussed a number of bilateral issues during two hours of one-on-one talks.
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