Trump summit with Putin to take place in neutral nation

DONALD TRUMP will hold a summit with Vladimir Putin in the near future to discuss North Korea, nuclear arms control and Russian interference in the US election, Russian and US officials announced yesterday.

The announcement came amid reports that North Korea is making rapid improvements to its nuclear research facility, calling into doubt the progress toward “total denuclearisation” that Mr Trump claimed after his meeting this month with Kim Jong-un.

The time and place of the US and Russian leaders’ meeting will be announced today, John Bolton, the US national security adviser, said at a press conference in Moscow last night. He met with Mr Putin earlier that day.

Yury Ushakov, a Russian presidential aide, said it would take place in a third country that was a “very comfortable place for both Russia and the US”. Previous reports have suggested Vienna and Helsinki are under consideration as locations for the summit.

It could end with a joint statement outlining a plan to improve relations or undertake joint actions to “facilitate international stability and security”.

Mr Trump’s decision to hold a highprofile sit-down with Mr Putin is sure to raise eyebrows at home as the investigation into his potential collusion with Russia churns on. While the two presidents have already met twice, both those sit-downs happened on the sidelines of international events, rather than at a bilateral summit.

Mr Bolton dismissed the idea that such a meeting would “prove some nexus between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin”, arguing that the pair could agree on constructive solutions even amid the fraught bilateral relationship. He said arms control was a topic that could be discussed.