Russian Premier Vladimir Putin is ‘ready’ for face-to-face with new US President Donald Trump
Kremlin says the historic meeting will take place in the 'coming months'
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin is ready to meet new US President Donald Trump but preparations for the possible meeting may take months, not weeks, says the Kremlin.
"This will not be in coming weeks, let's hope for the best - that the meeting will happen in the coming months" a spokesman told the BBC.
The Kremlin is reportedly working on plans for Putin and Trump to hold their first summit in a “neutral” country in Europe.
"The first meeting should take place neither in Russia nor in the US but in a neutral third country,” an official in the Russian presidential administration.
“It certainly won’t be London, and it won’t be Germany, because they’re both too hostile to Russia.
"It can’t be France — that would be seen as inappropriate because they have an election campaign going on. What about Iceland?”
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Trump officials have denied reports that they had informed British officials of plans for a summit with the Russian president in Reykjavik within weeks.
But two Russian officials have openly said Moscow was working on such a plan.
The Kremlin considers the summit a crucially important opportunity to set the tone to develop a strong international relationship between the two countries.
The choice of Iceland evokes memories of the 1986 talks in Reykjavik between then US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
That meeting laid the foundations for a nuclear arms control treaty a year later.
Last night Putin supporters held an all-night party in Moscow to celebrate theinauguration of Trump.
One of the organisers invited his Facebook followers to the event with the jokey comment: “See you in the evening. Washington will be ours.”