Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin discuss Mueller report, North Korea, Venezuela and three-way nuclear deal with China
- US president says he has ‘already spoken’ to Beijing and they ‘very much would like to be a part of’ nuclear accord
- Phone conversation between leaders also touched on special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in 2016 US presidential election
US President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for more than an hour on Friday, covering a range of topics from North Korea and Venezuela to a new nuclear deal that might include China.
“We’re talking about a nuclear agreement where we make less and they make less and maybe even where we get rid of some of the tremendous firepower that we have right now,” Trump told reporters after the call.
“We discussed the possibility of a three-way deal instead of a two-way deal,” Trump said. “And China, I’ve already spoken to them. They very much would like to be a part of that deal.”
Trump said China during trade talks had “felt very strongly” about joining the United States and Russia in limiting nuclear weapons.
“So I think we’re going to probably start up something very shortly between Russia and ourselves maybe to start off, and I think China will be added down the road. We’ll be talking about non-proliferation, we’ll be talking about a nuclear deal of some kind, and I think it’ll be a very comprehensive one,” he said.
China and Russia to forge stronger Eurasian economic ties
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier told reporters that the conversation also touched upon Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
The two leaders noted that Mueller’s investigation was over and that he had found “no collusion” between Americans and the Russians, according to Sanders.
“They discussed trade and the fact that it has increased between the two countries since the president has come into office. They also talked about North Korea. They also spoke about Ukraine and Venezuela – an overall positive conversation,” she said.
Much of the call focused on Venezuela, Sanders said. US officials have accused Russia of bolstering the regime of the country’s autocratic leader, Nicolas Maduro, whom the Trump administration would like ousted. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said earlier this week that Russian officials talked Maduro out of fleeing the country, a claim the Kremlin has denied.
The Kremlin said the call was initiated by Washington. It said the two leaders agreed to maintain contacts on different levels and expressed satisfaction with the “businesslike and constructive nature” of the conversation.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
