President Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during next week’s Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, the White House said.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, national security adviser H.R. McMaster said Trump planned to meet with a number of leaders at the summit, including Putin.
“While in Hamburg, the president will meet with many world leaders, including Chancellor Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister May of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Abe of Japan, President Moon of South Korea, President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia, President Peña Nieto of Mexico, President Jokowi of Indonesia and Prime Minister Lee of Singapore, among others,” McMaster said.
The meeting comes amid FBI and congressional investigations into Russia’s attempted meddling in the 2016 election, an issue that has overshadowed Trump’s presidency.
The White House wouldn’t say if Trump plans to discuss Russia’s attempted election interference during his meeting.
“We don’t have an agenda set up for these meetings right now, as you know, these meetings are a week away,” National Economic Director Gary Cohn said during the briefing. “We’re still finalizing schedules. So agendas for meetings have not been set up.”
Cohn also wouldn’t say whether it’s a full-fledged bilateral meeting or a pull aside. “In the G-20 meetings, as a whole, as the world leaders are gathered, we’ll have pull asides, we’ll have bilaterals. As I said, the schedule’s being formalized right now,” he said.
“They’re during the G20 meetings, so these are not long, long meetings. These are bilateral pull asides during the G-20,” Cohn added.
The Kremlin said Thursday a sidelines meeting was expected. “They will meet in any case there, on the sidelines of this summit, but no (separate) meeting is planned at the moment,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Trump leaves for his second foreign trip next week, visiting Warsaw, Poland before the Group of 20 summit in Germany.
In Poland, the White House said Trump will deliver a speech and attend the Three Seas Initiative Summit of central and eastern European nations.
Trump will then travel to Hamburg, where the G-20 summit will be held July 7-8.
Last month, Trump traveled to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican, Brussels and Italy on his first foreign trip as president.
