WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump said he trusts his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the war in Ukraine and believes Putin wants peace, Reuters reports. Trump said Kiev would be "part of" the negotiations to end Russia's nearly three-year brutal war against Ukraine, saying the conflict must end.
"I think he would have told me if he didn't want (peace)," Trump said of Putin. Ukraine, which fears it will be sidelined in dialogue with Moscow, will take part in negotiations to end the war with Russia, according to Trump, AFP reports.
Asked by reporters at the White House about Russia's possible return to the G7, Trump replied that he would be happy if that happened. "I think it was a mistake to kick (Russia) out," the Republican president said. Russia was a member of the G7 club of advanced economies, then known as the G8, until Moscow was expelled after it annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014.
According to AFP, the US president-elect also told reporters that he wants to hold talks with China and Russia on nuclear disarmament and halving defence spending by all three powers. He is considering holding a summit with Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping once "things calm down a bit."
Trump announced on Wednesday that he had spoken with the Kremlin chief on the phone and the two politicians agreed to immediately begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, which Russia unleashed at Putin's behest nearly three years ago. Trump plans to meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia.
CTK / gnews.cz-jav
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