Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a summit with US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping next month to reach a pact ending the Ukraine conflict, likely to be in Moscow’s favour, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Putin raised the proposal during a telephone call with Trump on Oct. 9, according to people familiar with the discussions cited by the newspaper. The Kremlin has proposed a meeting as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Shenzhen, China, on Nov. 18-19, according to the newspaper.
The Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said talks were taking place, but nothing yet has been decided about whether a meeting would take place or what would be discussed.
“The actual meeting and its possible agenda are not yet clear, although all three parties accept the hypothetical possibility of such a meeting occurring,” Peskov said to the Journal.
The senior US official said Trump was not yet on board with the plan for the summit but may be open to it. If the meeting were to happen, the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, would not be present, a development that might cause trouble in Kyiv or European capitals.
The move also comes as Moscow and Washington try to boost relations with a reported arrangement of Russian diesel exports to the US.
According to Reuters, the White House had not commented publicly about the summit proposal.
