WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at next week’s G20 summit in Japan.
In an interview on Fox News, Trump said he would hold meetings with Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump confirmed earlier this week he would be meeting with Xi.
“I want to get along with Russia, and I think we will. I want to get along with China, and I think we will. I’m meeting actually both of them next week in Japan at the G20,” Trump said on Fox News.
World leaders pressure Trump on climate at start of G20 summit
World leaders ratcheted up pressure on
US President Donald Trump to compromise on climate and trade as a Group of 20 summit got underway in Germany amid clashes between police and protesters.
In a joint communique issued as the leaders gathered in a vast convention center in Hamburg, Brazil, Russia, India and China – the so-called BRICS countries – called on the G20 to push for implementation of the Paris climate deal despite Trump’s decision last month to pull the United States out of it.
“The Paris agreement on climate change is an important consensus that doesn’t come easily and must not be given up easily,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said G20 leaders would urge Trump to reconsider his decision on Paris. “We are not renegotiating the Paris agreement, that stays, but I want to see the US looking for ways to rejoin it,” she told the BBC.
The meeting comes at a time of major shifts in the global geo-political landscape, with Trump’s “America First” policies pushing Europe and China closer together.
Trump will meet President Vladimir Putin for the first time on Friday afternoon, an encounter that will be intensely scrutinized following allegations by US intelligence agencies that Moscow meddled in the US election to help Trump win.
The summit also brings together Trump and Xi at a time when Washington is raising pressure on Beijing to rein in North Korea and threatening the Chinese with punitive trade measures.
Amid the big egos and seemingly intractable conflicts, the host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, faces the daunting task of steering leaders towards a consensus on trade, climate and migration – all issues that have become more contentious since Trump entered the White House half a year ago.
She faces an election in a little more than two months and cannot appear to cave in to Trump, who is deeply unpopular in Germany. Nor will she be keen for an open confrontation that could deepen tensions with Washington.
“There is quite a delicate balance that Angela Merkel will have to navigate in a way, because it is not clear that being confrontational won’t just create even more of a credibility problem for G20 cooperation,” Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told Reuters in an interview.
