US President Donald Trump has instructed his top national security aide to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to Washington later this year and the “discussions are already underway”, the White House has announced.
The announcement comes days after Trump and his Russian counterpart held their maiden summit in Helsinki on Monday. “In Helsinki, POTUS agreed to ongoing working level dialogue between the two security council staffs. President Trump asked (National Security Adviser) John Bolton to invite President Putin to Washington in the fall and those discussions are already underway,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a tweet.
The tweet came hours after Trump tweeted that he was “looking forward” to meeting again with Putin to “start implementing” some issues they discussed during their summit earlier this week. However, the date of Putin’s visit to Washington has not been announced yet. “That’s going to be special”, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Aspen security conference in Colorado when asked about the invitation to Putin.