Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked Slovenia yesterday for offering to host his first meeting with US President Donald Trump, but added that the prospect hinges on Washington.
The Russian leader hailed Slovenia, where Trump’s wife Melania was born and grew up, as an “excellent” venue for possible talks with Trump.
“It depends not only on us, but we are naturally ready for it,” he said.
Speaking after holding talks at the Kremlin with his Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahort, Putin said Russia welcomes Trump’s statements about his intentions to restore the strained Russia-U.S. ties.
“We always welcomed that and we hope that relations will be restored in full in all areas,” Putin said. “It relates to trade and economic ties, security issues and various regions of the world, which are suffering from numerous conflicts. By pooling our efforts, we naturally would be able to significantly contribute to solving those issues, including the fight against international terrorism.”
In recent years, Russia-U.S. relations have plunged to post-Cold war lows over the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and the allegations of Russia hacking of the Democrats in the US presidential election.
In 2001, Slovenia hosted Putin’s first meeting with former US President George W. Bush that led to a short-lived thaw in relations between Moscow and Washington.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the prospects of extending the New START Treaty that is set to expire in 2021 will “depend on the position of our American partners” and require negotiations.
He wouldn’t say whether the Kremlin favours extending the pact that limited Russian and US nuclear arsenals to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads each.
Speaking to reporters, Peskov pointed to a “certain break in dialogue on strategic security issues” during the Obama administration, and said Moscow and Washington now need “an update of information and positions.”
Peskov yesterday denied a report by the Washington Post claiming that Michael Flynn, retired general who is now Trump’s national security adviser, had discussed a possible review of anti-Russian sanctions with Russian ambassador to Washington in December. Peskov said Ambassador Sergei Kislyak did talk to Flynn, but the rest of the report was wrong.
While suggesting possible cooperation with Moscow to fight the IS group in Syria, as a candidate Trump was critical of the New START and talked about a need to strengthen US nuclear arsenals.
