Donald Trump discussed White House invitation to Vladimir Putin in phone call
The prospect of Putin visiting Washington is likely to sharpen divisions in the US over relations with Russia
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin discussed holding a summit at the White House, a Trump spokeswoman said after the Kremlin disclosed that the US president had invited the Russian leader to Washington.
“When our presidents spoke on the phone, Trump suggested having the meeting in Washington at the White House,” Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Monday. “This is quite an interesting, positive idea.”
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said later that the two leaders had discussed a meeting “at a number of potential venues, including the White House.”
The two sides have had no preparatory conversations since the March 20 call in which the leaders discussed the idea because of their tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats after the poisoning of a former spy in the UK, Ushakov said.
“I hope the Americans won’t abandon their proposal to discuss the possibility of holding the summit,” he said.
The prospect of Putin visiting Washington is likely to sharpen divisions in the US over relations with Russia amid continued tensions regarding alleged Kremlin meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections - allegations Russia denies.
Trump won bipartisan praise in Congress for ordering the expulsion last week of 60 Russian diplomats regarded as spies, the most since 1986, in a display of unity with Europe after the UK blamed Putin’s government for the March 4 nerve-agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal in England.