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White House confirms Trump still wants to meet with Putin

According to a source, the US president still wants to hold a meeting with Vladimir Putin

© Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images

WASHINGTON, April 20. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump still wants to hold a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a well-informed official at the National Security Council told TASS on Friday.

The will to hold the meeting is still there, since President Trump is convinced good relations might suit the interests of both the US and Russia, he said commenting on an earlier statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said Putin was ready to meet with Trump.

The official recalled the Trump said on March 20 Putin and he had discussed the possibility of a meeting at several different venues, including the White House.

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The Kremlin press service said on March 20 Trump had congratulated Putin on winning the March 18 presidential election. The two leaders spoke in favor of practical collaboration in various areas and agreed to issue instructions to their administrations on arranging the summit.

From the very beginning of his term of office, Trump has been speaking in favor of improvement of relations with Russia. However, over the time that has elapsed since his inauguration, the American-Russian relations have been deteriorating incessantly.

The US has introduced one package of anti-Russian sanctions after another and has done two amassed expulsions of Russian diplomats.

Also, the Americans have closed down Russian Consulates General in San Francisco and Seattle.

Putin and Trump have not had a full-fledged bilateral meeting so far. They only spoke twice to each other on the sidelines of major international summits - the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in Da Nang, Vietnam, and the G20 summit conference in Hamburg.

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