Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a summit next month with US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to negotiate an end to the four-year-old Ukraine conflict that would favour Moscow, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the discussions.
The Kremlin has suggested holding the trilateral dialogue on the sidelines of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, the report said.
The proposed summit comes amid warming ties between Trump and Putin especially after the US President announced a deal to buy Russian diesel and signed an order on Friday waiving key sanctions on Moscow. Trump’s diesel deal with Putin and the executive order waiving sanctions on Moscow have drawn criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has warned it would embolden Putin and prolong the war. Citing a former Russian intelligence officer briefed on the matter, the paper said that Putin’s suggestion came in an October 9 telephone call with Trump that also yielded the diesel deal between the two countries. That summit is set to take place on November 18 to 19 in Shenzhen.
The Kremlin has suggested holding the trilateral dialogue on the sidelines of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, the WSJ report said, citing people familiar with the discussions. A senior US official told the Journal that Trump had not agreed to such a summit, but he could be receptive to the idea.
