MOSCOW — In a phone call last month, President Trump proposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the two meet in the White House, a Kremlin aide said Monday.
The aide, Yury Ushakov, said no preparations for such a meeting have taken place since the March 20 phone call, according to Russian news agencies.
There was no immediate comment from the White House.
“If everything will be all right, I hope that the Americans will not back away from their own proposal to discuss the possibility of holding a summit,” Ushakov said, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. “When our presidents spoke on the phone, it was Trump who proposed holding the first meeting in Washington in the White House.”
Trump congratulated Putin in a phone call two days after the Russian president’s reelection to a fourth term last month. After the call, Trump said he and Putin would get together “in the not-too-distant future.”
President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin speak during their meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7, 2017. (Mikhail Klimentiev/AFP/Getty Images)
Since then, relations between Moscow and Washington have taken a further plunge in the aftermath of the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Britain.
Given that environment, Ushakov said Monday, “it is of course difficult to discuss the possibility of holding a summit,” the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
“I hope that the situation will allow us to discuss this issue,” Ushakov added, referring to the planning for a Trump-Putin summit, according to Interfax. “We believe that it is rather important and necessary for both countries and for the entire international community.”
Trump and Putin met last July at a Group of 20 summit in Germany.
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