"There are no plans for US President Donald Trump to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the "immediate future," a White House official said. The official said the news came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a "productive" phone call. "Secretary Rubio and Foreign Minister Lavrov had a productive call. Therefore, an additional-in-person meeting between the Secretary and Foreign Minister is not necessary," the official told Axios and numerous other US outlets. The official asked not to be identified given the weight of the matter."
"European leaders earlier in the day issued ajoint statementsaying they were "united" in their strong desire for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. The leaders said they "strongly support President Trump's position that the fighting should stop immediately," suggesting that the current lines of control after four years of war could serve as a starting point for negotiations, but they warned that "international borders must not be changed by force.""
"The phone call between Rubio and Lavrov was meant to be a forerunner to the potential Trump-Putin summit in Budapest, Hungary. Trump told reporters he expected to meet Putin "within two weeks or so" after the two leaders spoke on the phone last week. The next day after his phone call with Putin, Trump sat down with visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House. The US president held off on signing off the transfer of long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine."
A White House official said there are no plans for U.S. President Donald Trump to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in the immediate future. The official linked that decision to a productive phone call between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, saying another in-person meeting between them was unnecessary. The Rubio-Lavrov call was a forerunner to a potential Trump-Putin summit in Budapest. Trump had expected a meeting within two weeks after a phone conversation with Putin. Trump then met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and paused approval of Tomahawk missile transfers. European leaders urged an immediate stop to fighting while warning against changing borders by force.
Read at www.dw.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]