FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Putin Wants To Discuss INF Treaty with Trump
Nov. 12, 2018 (EIRNS)—In an interview with RT on the sidelines of the centennial Armistice celebrations in Paris, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hopes for the resumption of a comprehensive negotiating process on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with the United States.
“It is more important to maintain dialogue, not even at a top or high level, but at a level of experts. I hope a comprehensive negotiating process will be resumed,”
he told RT on Nov. 11. “It is not we who are withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. It is the U.S. that plans to do that,” he said. “Both they and we want to resume dialogue.”
Putin also told RT that he hopes to hold substantial talks with President Donald Trump during their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, over Nov. 30-Dec. 1.
When asked if the subject was brought up with Trump during the events in Paris, Putin replied, “Not yet. We have just said hello. The ceremony was organized in such a way that we could not speak with each other. We only watched the ceremony.”
Putin made clear that no meeting was held between them, at the request of the French. “Anyway, we agreed that we will not violate the receiving party’s schedule here. At their request, we will not organize any meetings here,” Putin said. “Such a meeting may be held on the sidelines of the G20 meeting or later.”
Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said no final agreement on the Putin-Trump meeting in Argentina has been reached yet. “The agenda has a lot of questions. The Presidents will discuss what they think necessary,” he said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 television channel. “Circumstances keep on changing. They may change with our American colleagues and with us, that is why there are no firm agreements.” According to Peskov, some Argentine sources say that Trump is planning to shorten his stay in Bueno Aires to one day. “So, we cannot say how it fits into such plans,” Peskov said.
On Nov. 12, Peskov told the media that at the Nov. 11 events in Paris, Putin had a quick word with Trump. “They agreed they had a great deal to discuss, including the INF Treaty. They decided to do this at the G20 summit in Argentina.”
