Budapest begins preparations for upcoming Trump-Putin summit
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó (photo: Getty Images)
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced the start of preparations for the meeting of leaders in Budapest — US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Szijjártó said.
The Hungarian minister posted on social media a photo of himself standing at a window, talking on the phone. In the photo's caption, he noted that he had discussed preparing for the Trump-Putin summit with Yury Ushakov, the Kremlin's foreign policy adviser.
"Next in line is preparation — Yury Ushakov, chief foreign policy adviser to the Russian president," the caption to the photo reads.
Szijjártó discusses the Trump-Putin summit in Budapest with Ushakov (photo: facebook.com/szijjarto.peter.official)
It is known that the evening before, Szijjártó also spoke with US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The topic of discussion was the leaders' meeting in Budapest.
"Hungary, as an island of peace, is ready to host the summit. We will provide all the conditions for the presidents to hold successful talks with each other so that peace returns to Europe," the Hungarian minister wrote shortly before his conversation with Ushakov.
Trump-Putin meeting in Budapest
US President Donald Trump announced a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 16 after their phone conversation. Their summit is expected to take place in Budapest within the next two weeks.
The Russian side has also announced preparations for the Trump-Putin meeting.
In addition, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said yesterday that after his phone conversation with President Trump, he plans to discuss the summit with Putin on Friday.
According to him, the meeting between the US and Russian leaders could take place in many countries outside Europe, but in Europe, there is no better place than Budapest.
It is known that this will be the second meeting between Trump and Putin since the beginning of Trump's second term in January this year.
The previous summit took place on August 15 in Anchorage. However, as reported earlier, the positive momentum of the Alaska meeting has run its course in Russia.
It is noted that the Putin-Trump meeting is set to take place after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's trip to Washington. Today, the Ukrainian and US leaders will meet at the White House.
As part of the Ukrainian president's visit to the United States, discussions are expected to include, in particular, the supply of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
