Pentagon and State Department refuse to confirm Trump-Putin ‘agreements’

Despite the rosy rhetoric from US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin about “useful agreements” reached at the Helsinki summit on Monday, neither the US Defence Department nor the State Department would confirm such understandings.

Mr Putin, in a speech to Russian diplomats in Moscow on Thursday, hailed the Helsinki summit as “successful overall and led to useful agreements”.

Mr Trump called the summit a “great success”, tweeting that he is looking forward to the second meeting “so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more”.

But across his administration there was a different sentiment. US officials at State and Defence were not able to confirm any of the agreements that Mr Trump referred to and in some cases contradicted the US President on some of the ideas floated in the two-hour meeting with Mr Putin. A senior State Department official played down the outcry about the meeting. “Nothing of substance has changed from what it was before the meeting,” the official told The National. He argued that, Mr Trump’s rhetoric aside, the policy trajectory for Washington remained the same.

The State Department was also at odds with the White House over Russia’s request to question 11 US citizens including former ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul. While the White House said the request was under consideration, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert called it absurd.

“The overall assertions that have come out of the Russian government are absolutely absurd ... we do not stand by the assertions that the Russian government made,” she said.

At the Pentagon, Joseph Votel, commander of US forces in the Middle East, said on Thursday that he had received “no new guidance” on co-operating with Russia in Syria.

“Steady as she goes,” he said of the US approach in Syria. “Any space for [changes alongside Russia] would have to be created by Congress … I have not asked for that,” Gen Votel said. The National Defence Authorization Act passed by Congress, restricts defence co-operation and co-ordination with Russia beyond the scope of deconfliction. Any change to the policy would require legislative approval.

Asked about Israel’s security as an item on the Putin-Trump agenda, the Centcom commander said: “I’m not privy to any kind of grand bargain discussion or anything like that ... my mission remains ... completing the defeat of ISIS.”

The Russian Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday that it was “ready to activate contacts with US colleagues ... to discuss extending Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, co-operation in Syria [and] other current issues of ensuring military security”. US defence officials are still not confirming such co-operation.

But even with the US military and diplomatic corp playing down the effect of the summit, the public outcry continued on Thursday. Republicans in Congress blocked a Democratic motion to subpoena Marina Gross, the interpreter in the Trump-Putin meeting.