Trump Plans to See Putin in Asia

[Swordsmyth]

“I think it’s expected that we’ll meet with Putin, yes,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew from Honolulu to Tokyo. “We want Putin’s help on North Korea and we’ll be meeting with a lot of different leaders.”

More at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-05/trump-plans-to-see-putin-in-asia-amid-scrutiny-of-campaign-ties

[Swordsmyth]

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today that the Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump will soon hold a meeting in Vietnam where they will discuss several important issues, the settlement of the Syrian crisis including. During a press conference on Saturday, Peskov said that arrangements are being made to prepare a meeting between the two leaders, where particular attention will be paid to the settlement of the Syrian crisis.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/breaking-putin-and-trump-to-meet-in-vietnam/5616754

[Raginfridus]

Russia and US meeting in Vietnam to discuss the resolution of another proxy war?

[AZJoe]

Trump/Washington evade Putin Meeting (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-putin-meeting-vietnam-apec-summit-asia-trip-kremlin-white-house-a8048161.html)

Weeks of intense preparation had gone into prospect of bilateral talks, with hopes for a genuine breakthrough on Syria and North Korea. But in the end, the US decided the time ‘wasn’t right’

As the first day of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit in Vietnam drew to a close ... Mr Putin was there. Mr Trump was absent. For all the Kremlin’s insistence that a formal meeting between the presidents was about to happen, the White House seemed to offer different thoughts.

The two leaders did eventually cross paths, exchanging handshakes and brief comments during the summit’s official dinner.

But all throughout Thursday, Kremlin officials had treated the second bilateral meeting of the presidents as a fait accompli. ... The Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said they were “ready” for negotiations. Even ... President Trump said that he saw “no reasons” why the meeting should not take place. ...

On Friday morning however, aboard Air Force One, the President’s press secretary Sarah Sanders walked back the chances of a full, bilateral meeting. ...

Lavrov, never hostage to political correctness, summed up the Russian frustration. ... “Ask them [Washington] yourselves.” [responding to questions of why the meeting will not take place] ...

“We don’t quite understand what’s happening, but are patiently working to an understanding.” Mr Peskov’s remarks had, in fact, come at the end of weeks of intense preparation. There had been discussions at ministerial level. US ambassador Jon Huntsman, just a month into the Moscow job, had met with senior foreign ministry officials to decide on a common agenda. ... The main items on the agenda were instead supposed to be Syria and North Korea. ...

Mr Trump’s inability to commit to a meeting will do little to encourage Russian hopes of progress. The Kremlin is becoming resigned to the reality that the President is largely powerless ...

“They are now preparing themselves for living in the US sanctions mode for at least the coming decade,” ...

“This was not so much a snub as evasion,” ... “But even if it leaves Putin looking snubbed, far more serious is the extent to which it leaves Trump looking cowardly.”