Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at the summit in Alaska. Photo: Jae C. Hong / AP / Profimedia
US President Donald Trump has no plans to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the near future, a US official said on Tuesday, just days after Trump announced that he and Putin would meet within the next two weeks in Budapest.
“A meeting between President Trump and President Putin is not foreseen in the near future,” the US official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
BBC News in turn quotes a White House official as saying that there are currently “no plans” for US President Donald Trump to meet “in the immediate future” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Last Thursday, after a more than two-hour phone call with the Kremlin leader, Trump made a surprising announcement: he will meet with the Russian president at an “agreed-upon” location – in Budapest, Hungary – “to see if we can end this 'shameful' war between Russia and Ukraine” and claimed that “great progress has been made” following the phone conversation.
Trump also said he anticipates meeting Putin soon, probably “in the next couple of weeks.”
A preparatory meeting between US Foreign Minister Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was due to take place this week, but the White House said the two had a “productive” conversation and that the meeting was no longer “necessary”.
The White House did not provide further details on why the talks were postponed.
