WASHINGTON, November 13. /TASS/. Both Moscow and Washington agree that the next summit between their leaders, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Donald Trump of the United States, should yield a concrete result in terms of the Ukrainian settlement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after a G7 ministerial in meeting in Canada’s Ontario.
"I think there was agreement on both sides that the next time our presidents meet, there has to be a concrete result," he said, recalling his phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on October 20.
"We have to know going in that we have a real chance to get something positive cputoming out [of the leaders’ meeting]. And we’d love to see that happen. I mean, we’d love to see this war end," he said, referring to the conflict in Ukraine. "We can’t just continue to have meetings for the sake of meetings, and I think both sides sort of view it that way. At least, that’s what I took from our conversation."
When asked about his current relations with Lavrov, Rubio said, "I haven’t talked to him in a month, but that’s fine." At the same time, he added that their "conversation have always been professional and productive."
On October 16, following a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, US leader Donald Trump announced that they had agreed to meet soon in Budapest. The summit was later postponed as the sides failed to coordinate their positions on a meaningful result concerning the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. Moscow and Washington said that the meeting would be organized when appropriate conditions are created.
According to Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, both sides will want to hold a summit in Budapest at some point but such a meeting should be thoroughly prepared.