Donald Trump Plans In-Person Meeting With Vladimir Putin Ahead Of November Elections

Donald Trump is planning to hold an in-person meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of the November elections, according to sources. The goal of the meeting is to demonstrate Trump’s ability to negotiate agreements.

“He wants it to show his deal-maker abilities,” said a White House official. “It’s just a big stage.”

Sources said administration officials have already considered various times and locations for the upcoming summit, including next month in New York. Trump and Putin will discuss in the summit the eyed nuclear arms control agreement between the U.S. and Russia, including the possible extension of the New START.

The New START, which the U.S. and Russia first signed in April 2010 in Prague, is set to expire in February 2021. This nuclear arms reduction treaty between the two countries is formally known as Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms.

On Sunday, National security adviser Robert O’Brien said Trump hopes to host Putin to sign a new arms control agreement, but the President has yet to ask him for a meeting. “We’re not doing a meeting with Putin in the United States, but at some time we’d love to have Putin come here to sign a terrific arms control deal that protects Americans and protects Russians,” he said.

Marshall Billingslea, the U.S. special envoy for arms control, will meet with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov on Monday in Vienna for the next round of negotiations on the arms control agreement. In June, Billingslea revealed that the U.S. “is leaving all options on the table” about the future of the agreement but emphasized the plan to bring China into a new agreement. Since then, Russia has failed to concur with the U.S. on some basic elements of the treaty.

A source said a basic framework for negotiating the treaty will move the negotiations along, but it will not happen unless Trump and Putin meet to iron out the details of the agreement. “We are negotiating on arms control. Hopefully, we can make some progress in Vienna next week. Getting ahead of the meetings next week would be premature,” said another White House official.