US, Russia Should Cooperate On Humanitarian Disasters - Ex-House Representative

The Presidents of Russia and the United States need to hold a second meeting and the two countries should be engaging on humanitarian disasters prior to it, former US House Representative Curt Weldon told reporters at a Eurasian business development conference in Washington

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th March, 2019) The Presidents of Russia and the United States need to hold a second meeting and the two countries should be engaging on humanitarian disasters prior to it, former US House Representative Curt Weldon told reporters at a Eurasian business development conference in Washington.

"Yes, absolutely, summits are always helpful," Weldon said on Tuesday when asked about another US-Russian summit. "Before the summit we should be focused on, what I am focused on, humanitarian disasters... There is a common interest there. It's not political."

Helping people deal with disasters like earthquakes are not controversial issues, he said. In addition, more Americans need to be active with Russian organizations on issues related to the environment, healthcare and other areas where the United States and Russia have common interests, he explained.

"Eventually we get to the difficult issues, security , issues, nuclear weapons, and all the other stuff," Weldon said.

Putin and Trump were supposed to have a full-scale meeting during the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires that took place from November 30 to December 1. However, the US president called off the talks at the last moment over the incident in the Kerch Strait when Russian border guard service detained Ukrainian vessels that illegally crossed the country's border.

The two leaders' first ever full-fledged summit took place in the Finnish capital of Helsinki in mid-July last year.