BERLIN, October 17. /TASS/. Sevim Dagdelen, foreign policy expert for the German party Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance - Reason and Justice (BSW), welcomed news of the upcoming meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US leader Donald Trump in Budapest, and pointed out that Europe is on the outside looking in again.
"The planned meeting between Trump and Putin in Budapest is the right decision. It once again shows that Europeans are mere spectators on their own continent. Berlin and Brussels have taken themselves out of the game by consistently rejecting diplomacy and negotiations," Dagdelen wrote on X.
"If the German government and the European Commission continue to seek vassal status in relation to the US, Europe's self-isolation will prolong," she added.
On the evening of October 16, Putin and Trump held their eighth telephone conversation since the beginning of the year. Following the 2.5-hour talk, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov announced that Moscow and Washington would immediately begin preparations for a new summit, potentially in Budapest. Ushakov said the Hungarian capital was proposed by Trump and approved by Putin.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated that he had ordered the creation of an organizing committee to prepare the summit, noting that the work "began on Thursday evening.".