FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Trump Confirms G20 Meeting with Putin in Buenos Aires, Paris Meeting To Be Brief

Nov. 6, 2018 (EIRNS)—Before leaving Washington yesterday for his final campaign rallies in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri, President Trump was asked about his plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin while both are in Paris on Nov. 11 for the Armistice Day centenary celebrations. He said:

“Well, we haven’t set anything up yet. We don’t know that that’s going to be the right place. I’m going to be in Paris for other reasons. But we will be meeting at the G20 [in Buenos Aires at the end of November]. And probably we’ll have meetings after that—probably plenty of meetings. Getting along with Russia, China and all of them would be a good thing. I’ve said it for a long time. So we’ll have plenty of meetings. But I’m not sure that we’ll have a meeting in Paris—probably not.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated, after the above Trump remarks were reported, that in Paris the two Presidents “will have a brief meeting and agree between themselves on when to hold a full meeting.” He added, according to TASS, that

“In this case, it is not due to disagreements; it is rather due to the format of the multilateral events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the First World War. This format does not allow the two Presidents to meet in the full format. That’s why it was decided that they will have a brief meeting and agree between themselves on when to hold a full meeting.”

Peskov declined to comment on a report in the Russian daily Kommersant that it was actually French President Emmanuel Macron who spiked the Trump-Putin Paris meeting, on the grounds that he didn’t want it to “overshadow” the World War I ceremonies.