President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke via phone for the second consecutive day Friday as the two world leaders talked about oil production and the coronavirus pandemic.
The White House said Trump and Putin discussed ways to contain COVID-19, the local energy market likely dealing with the OPEC-Plus meeting this week and other “bilateral and global issues.”
OPEC-Plus and Russia came to a preliminary agreement to slash oil production by 10 million barrels per day for two months, eventually lessening that reduction to 6 million per day by January. The deal still needs to win approval by member Mexico.
The Kremlin said the two discussed cooperation in space but did not go into detail.
“Some crucial aspects of bilateral relations, including cooperation in space, were touched upon,” the Kremlin’s report said.
Putin touched on the subject in an earlier news conference, saying “it is one of the traditional strengths of the Russian space industry and the competitive edge should be retained here.”
Trump said he believed Russia and OPEC were close to a deal.
“I think it was a very good call,” Trump said of Thursday’s conversation with Putin. “We’re going to see what happens, but it was a very good call. They’ll probably announce something either today or tomorrow, one way or the other. Could be good. Could be not so good.”
The two men spoke on March 30 as the coronavirus continued to affect both countries.
Source: UPI
