Trump is open to visiting Putin in Moscow, still looks forward to hosting him in Washington

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

President Donald Trump speaks about trade at US Steel’s Granite City Works in Granite City, Illinois July 26, 2018. 

The White House on Friday said President Donald Trump looks forward to hosting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Washington next year, and said he would also consider traveling to Moscow to meet with Putin.

“President Trump looks forward to having President Putin to Washington after the first of the year, and he is open to visiting Moscow upon receiving a formal invitation,” Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement Friday morning.

The announcement from the White House came in response to comments Putin made in South Africa earlier in the day, where he said he was prepared to go to Washington to meet with Trump if “the right conditions for work” existed.

“Regarding our meetings, I understand very well what President Trump said. He has a desire to have further meetings, to hold further meetings. I am ready for that,” Putin told reporters at an international summit of the BRICS group of nations. But he cautioned, “we need for the appropriate conditions to exist, to be created, including in our countries.”

Putin added that Russia was “ready to invite President Trump to Moscow. By all means. By the way, he has such an invitation, I told him about that.” Likewise, Putin said, “I am ready to go to Washington. I repeat once again, if the right conditions for work are created.”

Friday’s statements marked the latest step in efforts by the White House and the Kremlin to continue the talks the two leaders held at a summit in Helsinki earlier this month.

Any attempts to follow up on the summit have been complicated by the harsh criticism Trump came under for his performance during a joint press conference, at which the president refused to publicly hold Russia accountable for malign activities around the world, including the U.S. election attacks in 2016.

Trump also signaled at the press conference that he believed Vladimir Putin’s denials of the attacks over the unanimous conclusions that had been reached by U.S. intelligence agencies.

Upon his return to the United States, White House staff spent nearly a week attempting to walk back Trump’s statements and reframe his positions, with only limited success.