Vestnik Kavkaza – President Donald Trump has told aides he would like to hold an in-person meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin before the November election, according to four people familiar with the discussion, NBC News reports.
Administration officials have explored various times and locations for another Trump-Putin summit, including potentially next month in New York, these people said.
The goal of a summit would be for the two leaders to announce progress towards a new nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, the people familiar with the discussions said. One option under consideration is for the two leaders to sign a blueprint for a way forward in negotiations on extending New START, a nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia that expires next year, three of the people familiar with the discussions said.
They said Trump sees a summit as an opportunity to be presidential and demonstrate he’s able to negotiate agreements.
“He wants it to show his deal-maker abilities,” one of them said. “It’s just a big stage.”
A White House official said the president’s team plans to have him hold more meetings with world leaders in the weeks leading up to the election.
