The US administration expects a personal meeting between US leader Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin very soon. This was stated by Sebastian Gorka, senior director for counterterrorism at the White House National Security Council.
“It is related to timing. When the right moment comes, the president will be in the room with Putin. And I expect that to happen very soon“, he said at a conference on international security organized by Politico in the US capital. Asked to clarify what the senior director meant by “as soon as possible”, Gorka became angry: “That's all you're going to get. You know, I hate Politico. You won't get anything more from me than "as soon as possible."
He was asked if Trump would attend the Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul. "No, because all sides have to make a decision. One side is missing. It doesn't make sense," the White House official said, referring to the absence of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"We have to make sure that neither side is intransigent. But you can be sure that when the last ink is put on that piece of paper, President Trump will be the man who will stand behind this deal - he will seal it," Gorka added.
"We live in the real world. The Trump administration lives in the real world. We recognize the reality on the ground. And we have one priority - to stop the bloodshed, everything else comes after the bloodshed is stopped“, the White House spokesman concluded.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the work of the Russia-NATO Council could be resumed, but this issue has not yet been discussed at meetings of representatives of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization member states.
The Secretary of State added that various guests have been invited to the NATO summit in June in The Hague, and Zelensky could be invited, and the United States has no objection to this. “Obviously, he could come. We invite the Indo-Pacific countries to the NATO summit. We invited Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Sheibani to come here today and meet with me. Many leaders of countries that are not members of NATO are invited to meetings of the alliance. They are not attending the leaders' meetings, but they are invited to the conference," the Secretary of State said.
Bloomberg earlier reported that the United States had proposed resuming the work of the Russia-NATO Council, which was effectively suspended after the start of hostilities in 2022. According to the agency, this is proposed as part of the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine.
According to Euractiv, Zelensky will not be invited to the NATO summit in The Hague in June for the first time since the start of the war, due to concerns about a new display of disagreements within NATO in the event of possible new tensions with US President Donald Trump.