Russian President Vladimir Putin has been invited to visit Washington in “early 2019,” Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton has announced.
Mr Bolton spoke at a press conference in Georgia on Friday morning. He said that scheduling for the trip had yet to be worked out but Mr Putin would be invited “after the first of the year.”
“We have invited President Putin to Washington after the first of the year for, basically, a full day of consultations,” Mr Bolton said, days after meeting the Russian president in Moscow. “What the scheduling of that is we don’t quite know yet.”
President Donald Trump held a summit with Mr Putin in Helsinki, the Finnish capital, in July and then issued Mr Putin an invitation to visit Washington in the autumn. But that was postponed after Mr Trump faced allegations of not being hard enough on to the Kremlin.
It was not immediately clear if Mr Putin had accepted the invitation. Mr Putin last held a meeting with a US president on American soil in 2015 when he met Barack Obama on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly.
Mr Trump’s earlier invitation to Mr Putin sparked an outcry in Washington, including from some inside the president’s own Republican party, who argued that Mr Putin was an adversary not worthy of a White House visit.
US intelligence agencies allege that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election – and it is the subject of a federal investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. That probe is also looking into any possible collusion between Moscow and Trump campaign officials Russia denies any election meddling.
Mr Bolton said that Mr Putin and Mr Trump are set to meet in Paris when they attend 11 November events marking 100 years since Armistice Day – although that meeting is expected to be brief.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had a call with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss “acute issues on the international agenda and bilateral ties in the context of preparations for planned contacts between the presidents,” the ministry said in a statement.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
