Trump abruptly postpones meeting with Putin until next year
(Baonghean.vn) - On July 25, US national security adviser John Bolton said that President Donald Trump will postpone his second meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin until next year, after the conclusion of the federal investigation into alleged Russian election interference.
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| US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Reuters |
Trump said last week that he would invite Putin to Washington for a meeting this fall, a bold rebuff to criticism of the Helsinki summit, where Trump appeared to take the Russian leader’s assertion that Moscow had not interfered in the 2016 US presidential election seriously.
The invitation sparked a new wave of protests, including from lawmakers in Trump's own Republican Party, who argued that Putin was an enemy unworthy of visiting the White House and that they still did not know what the two leaders discussed during their two-hour one-on-one meeting.
“President Trump believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we agreed that it will take place next year,” Bolton said in a statement.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow interfered to sway the vote for Trump, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians.
Trump has dismissed criticism that arose after his joint press conference with Putin in Helsinki, insisting he misspoke several times during the summit. The US leader then abruptly extended an invitation to Putin.
Reflecting the dissatisfaction among US lawmakers, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on July 24 that Putin would not be invited to address the US Congress or visit Capitol Hill if he accepted Trump's invitation.
The Kremlin said this week that while Washington and Moscow agree that another Trump-Putin meeting is needed, Russia has not yet begun any practical preparations for a new meeting.
“There are many other meeting options that our leaders can consider,” aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters, citing the G20 leaders’ meeting in Argentina that begins in late November.
Trump has repeatedly called the investigation into alleged 2016 election interference a “witch hunt,” a claim he reiterated in a tweet the day he met Putin in Helsinki.
