Trump could meet Russia’s Putin in Paris in November

Grigory Dukor | Reuters

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive for a joint news conference after their meeting in Helsinki, July 16, 2018. 

President Donald Trump would look forward to meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Paris on Nov. 11, National Security Advisor John Bolton said Tuesday.

Both Trump and Putin already are planning to be in the French capital that day to mark the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I.

Bolton, speaking to reporters Tuesday in Moscow, said that Putin told him during a meeting that lasted about 90 minutes that he would like to continue having direct discussions with Trump, and suggested that take place when they were in Paris.

Bolton said Trump would look foward to doing that.

The two leaders most recently met in Helsinki, Finland, in July, where Trump seemed to back Putin’s claims that Russia had not tried to affect the outcome of the 2016 presidential election by means that included hacking into Democratic National Committee servers and stealing emails.

Bolton on Tuesday said that he talked with Putin about Russian meddling in the election and why it was harmful.

Trump announced last weekend that the United States will pull out of the 31-year-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty because of his claims that Russia has violated that pact “for many years.”

The treaty bars both countries from possessing, making or test-flying ground-launced cruise missles that have a range of between 300 and 3,400 miles.

Bolton said Putin told him that Russia was suprised by what Putin charaterized as unprovoked action.