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RUSSIA-US-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY
Putin says ready to meet Trump ‘as soon as’ Washington is ready
QINGDAO, China, June 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin
on Sunday said he was ready to meet his US counterpart Donald Trump as soon
as Washington was ready, adding Vienna could be a possible venue for such a
summit.
“As soon as the American side is ready this meeting would take place
depending on my working schedule of course,” Putin told reporters in the
Chinese city of Qingdao.
“The US president himself repeatedly said that he would consider such a
meeting helpful. I can confirm this. It’s true,” Putin said.
He said he did not discuss a possible meeting venue with Trump but “many”
countries including Austria were keen to help in organising such a summit.
“But I believe it’s a technical issue,” he said.
“It’s important for such meetings — if they take place — to have concrete
contents.”
The Wall Street Journal, citing a senior European official, reported that
Putin asked Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on a visit to Vienna earlier
this week to help organise such a meeting and that Washington was considering
it.
Under the conservative Kurz, Austria has strived to act as a mediator
between Russia and the West.
While the EU-state imposed sanctions on Russia over Crimea along with the
rest of the bloc, Austria did not expel Russian diplomats like other Western
nations following the March poisoning of a Russian former double agent and
his daughter in Britain, an attack London has accused Moscow of being behind.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1417 hrs