Putin Says Ready To Meet Trump At G20 Summit In Buenos Aires

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he was ready to hold a meeting with his US counterpart Donald Trump at the upcoming G20 Summit in the Argentine capital.

SINGAPORE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th November, 2018) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he was ready to hold a meeting with his US counterpart Donald Trump at the upcoming G20 Summit in the Argentine capital.

The G20 leaders will hold a meeting in Buenos Aires from November 30 to December 1.

"We were ready to meet in Paris, but we have already said that we did not want to interfere with such a major event [Armistice Day], which was organized by the government and the president of France. This was a really big event, there were 90 heads of state and government. It was rather difficult to organize a normal full-scale work there. We agreed to meet in Buenos Aires, in case this works out, we are ready, on our part," Putin told reporters at a press conference in Singapore.

The Russian president has also met briefly with US Vice President Mike Pence, who confirmed to Putin that the US side was getting ready for the two leaders' meeting in Buenos Aires.

"Now the vice president said that the US side was preparing for this meeting as well. Let us see what happens, we do have something to talk about," Putin said.

During his conversation with Pence, the Russian president has also raised the problem of strategic stability and the implementation of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), saying that the issue would be among the major ones for negotiations between Moscow and Washington.

"One of the key issues, of course, is the problem of strategic stability, because we have to understand what will happen with the New START," Putin said, noting that Russia also had to understand what awaited the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty after Trump's announcement in October that he intended to withdraw from the agreement.