President Trump said Monday that he’s “probably not” going to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a weekend trip to Paris.
Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One that he instead plans to speak with Putin during the G-20 summit in Argentina later this year.
“Well, we haven’t set anything up yet. We don’t know that that’s going to be the right place. I’m going to be in Paris for other reasons,” Trump told reporters.
“But we’ll be meeting at the G-20 and probably will have meetings after that. Probably plenty of meetings. Getting along with Russia, China, and all of them would be a good thing. I’ve said it for a long time. So we’ll have plenty of meetings, but I’m not sure we’ll have a meeting in Paris. Probably not,” he said.
It’s unclear if Trump’s travel schedule remains subject to change. White House spokespeople did not immediately provide clarification.
Trump spoke as he embarked on a final campaign blitz for Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections Tuesday. He departs Washington for France on Friday.
The anticipated Putin meeting was confirmed last month by national security adviser John Bolton, creating significant anticipation in the wake of a politically explosive July summit in Helsinki.
Bolton said at a press conference in Moscow that he told Putin a meeting would happen Sunday, when world leaders gather for the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
“I said yes, in fact, that President Trump would look forward to meeting with him in Paris,” Bolton told reporters at the Oct. 23 press conference.
“We will make the precise arrangements on that, but it will happen in connection with the 100th anniversary, the celebration of the Armistice that the French are hosting on November the 11th,” Bolton said.
Last week, Bolton downplayed expectations, however.
“It’s likely to be brief,” Bolton said Wednesday about talks between Trump and Putin.
Trump still is likely to make headlines with meetings in France, where he will rub shoulders with leaders who are flouting U.S. sanctions on Iran and staring down Trump’s tariffs on Europe’s exports.
Trump is expected to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and French President Emmanuel Macron, among other leaders, while in Paris.
Still, Trump has a habit of surprising engagements with the Russian leader. In Helsinki, private talks between Trump and Putin lasted 30 minutes longer than scheduled, running two hours before a press conference at which Trump appeared to accept Putin’s denial of Russia leading a campaign to influence the 2016 U.S. election.
Speaking last week, Bolton said there are “a lot of issues to discuss” when Putin and Trump do meet again.
“The [Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces] Treaty is certainly one of them, we have got other arms control issues. But we’ve got their behavior in the Middle East, in a whole range of other areas where it’s important that we continue conversations on,” Bolton said.
