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AFP
Moscow
Russian president Vladimir Putin is"ready for a meeting" with his US counterpart Donald Trump, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.
Moscow's chief diplomat added that such a summit was not currently being discussed but the Kremlin hopes that a meeting at the White House would materialise.
"President Putin is ready for such a meeting," Lavrov said in an interview with state news agency RIA Novosti.
"We are proceeding from the fact that the US president in a telephone conversation ” that was made public, there is no secret about this ” sent such an invitation and said that he would be happy to see (Putin) in the White House and then to meet him during a reciprocal visit."
"Since Trump suggested this, we proceed from the fact that he will make this concrete," he added.
Trump proposed a White House summit when he called Putin last month, prior to the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from the US.
The proposal has not moved forward since relations between the US and Russia deteriorated further over an alleged chemical attack in Syria.
During the interview, Lavrov also said Moscow welcomed an expected summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un, the leader of nuclear-armed North Korea.
