GERMANY, JULY 20, 2018 – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday that she welcomes any dialogue between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, commenting on the recent announcement of a future visit by Putin to the White House.
“We have to get used to the fact that meetings between the president of the United States and the president of Russia will become a normality,” Merkel said during her annual press conference.
Merkel said that she hoped Putin and Trump would discuss nuclear disarmament, noting that the US and Russia hold more than 90 per cent of the world’s nuclear weapons.
Trump’s invitation for Putin to visit Washington in the autumn comes amid confusion over what exactly the two discussed in the private, two-hour meeting they held in Helsinki on Monday.
There have been talk of agreements reached, but there have been no formal announcements.
