FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Trump’s Battle To Meet with Putin
June 17, 2018 (EIRNS)—The June 16 Sydney Morning Herald, in its article “After Kim Meeting, Trump Turns to Putin,” and a similar report in the June 15 Washington Post, shed light on the intense battle President Trump has had to wage inside his own administration, in order to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to the Post, citing an unnamed administration official and two diplomats familiar with the matter, a Trump-Putin meeting is provisionally scheduled for July.
“Trump’s success in advancing the summit planning marks a victory over his aides, who have pushed him to embrace a number of hawkish policies that he has later regretted.... Trump’s insistence on a summit stems from his view that together, [he and Putin] can resolve major geopolitical issues in the Middle East and Europe,”
the Sydney paper wrote.
The Post, for its part, reported on June 15 that after President Trump had had impromptu meetings with President Putin in Vietnam on the sidelines of 2017 APEC Summit, he had pushed for a direct meeting with Putin. An unnamed U.S. official told the Post, “After that meeting, the President wanted to invite Putin to the White House. We ignored it.” (At that time, H.R. McMaster was U.S. National Security Advisor and Rex Tillerson was U.S. Secretary of State.)
But as the June 12 summit in Singapore with Chairman Kim illustrated, President Trump does not want to get stuck in dozens of procedures in which nothing will ever be accomplished; he trusts in the confidence of his power as a leader to meet with other leaders to actually solve problems, in the environment of the Silk Road spirit.
The Post’s sources now report that “it’s possible” that Trump would meet with Putin this summer while he is in Europe for the NATO summit. U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman is also reported to be arranging for a delegation of Republican senators to visit Moscow, including Richard C. Shelby (AL), John Neely Kennedy (LA), and John Hoeven.
