Washington: Amid tension between the United States and Russia over Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential elections, US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg on Friday.
“It has been agreed that the presidents will meet though their schedules are rather tight. However, we will keep in touch with our US counterparts to find an interval for this most important meeting. We will try to agree on the meeting, and I am sure that the two presidents will meet in Hamburg,” TASS quoted Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov as saying.
US National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton also confirmed that the two leaders will sit on Friday for the bilateral meeting, reports CNN.
CNN was told by US administration officials that Trump is likely to focus heavily on the Syria and Ukraine conflicts.
It will be the first time that the two leaders will be meeting in-person with each other. So far, Trump and Putin have spoken three times by phone since the US President Trump took office.
During the presidential campaign, Trump argued for better US-Russia relations and had frequently praised Putin after he spoke favorably of Trump.
ANI