G20 summit: Russia expects Putin-Trump meeting to proceed as planned

Russia said Wednesday it will wait for the meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump to continue as planned. In an interview with Washington Post on Tuesday, Trump said he could cancel the meeting with Putin in Argentina after Russia seized three Ukrainian warships last weekend.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting was taking place and that Russia had received "no further information from its American counterparts".

The long-running conflict between Russia and Ukraine came to light on Sunday, when Russian border guards fired on three Ukrainian ships and seized ships and the crew. Trump said he would receive a "full report" from his national security team on Russia's recent actions in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea.

He said that he would decide on a course afterwards.

"Maybe I will not have the meeting," he said. "Maybe I will not even have the meeting." Trump added, "I do not like this aggression, I do not want this aggression at all."

The comments were Trump's strongest so far in condemning Russia's recent actions in Ukraine, where tensions are mounting. But the White House aides were still preparing for Putin's meeting after Trump's comments. The meeting between Trump and Putin should be just one of many high-level foreign policy commitments for the US leader during the two-day flash visit to Argentina.

Trump is also ready to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during this weekend's dinner, as part of a session that could be instrumental in determining if and how the ongoing trade dispute between their countries could be resolved . The White House warned Tuesday Xi against any attempt to wait for Trump in the ongoing discussions, suggesting that the Chinese economy was not as resistant to a trade war as it would be. 39, American economy.

The warning of Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, preceded the broad base of the two leaders on Saturday night. Over the past year, both countries have collected a series of tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in reciprocal imports, with the latest set of US tariffs coming into effect at the beginning of the new year.

National Security Advisor John Bolton said Trump would also meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Argentine President Mauricio Macri, South Korea's Moon Jae-in, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the trip was an opportunity for the president to consolidate relations with other world leaders and advance a global free trade system based on "free trade". , just and reciprocally. The Trump-Xi meeting would be the first since countries started beating themselves with import taxes earlier this year.

The United States has targeted $ 250 billion in Chinese products and Beijing has responded by spoiling tariffs on US goods worth $ 110 billion. Both parties have been in negotiations for months, but Mr Kudlow said they were deadlocked just a few weeks ago. Kudlow said the Chinese government was "extremely disappointed" by China's commitment to trade talks, but that the meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit could change the game.

"Maybe we can break into Buenos Aires or not," he said.

Kudlow added that if the US does not get "satisfactory" responses to its trade positions, more tariffs would be imposed.

He said Trump "is not leaving."

"I hope they understand that," he said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that a recent phone conversation between Xi and Trump on the trade and other issues was "extremely positive".