Russian diplomat says possibility of Putin-Trump summit is on the agenda

The possibility of another meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump is on the agenda, a senior Russian diplomat has said as he refused to rule out the news.

"I wouldn't rule anything out," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, as reported by Reuters quoting state-owned International Affairs magazine, published on Saturday.

"The search for a way forward continues," he said, adding that progress in building dialogue between Russia and US is 'impressive' and contacts are 'yielding results'.


On a similar note, Kremlin said on Monday that it hoped another summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump could take place as soon as the necessary preparation had been completed.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow took a very negative view of a bill that Trump said U.S. Republicans were working on that would impose sanctions on any country doing business with Russia, Reuters reported. Putin and Trump met in August at a summit in Alaska, where they failed to reach a resolution on the war in Ukraine. Last month, the two leaders announced plans for a summit in Budapest but Trump cancelled it soon afterwards.

Also read: Trump-Putin Alaska Summit: Key highlights from a 'productive' but 'no deal yet' meeting

Trump earlier said that he canceled a planned summit with Putin, citing a lack of progress in diplomatic efforts and a sense that the timing was off. "We canceled the meeting with President Putin - it just didn't feel right to me," the US President told reporters at the White House. "It didn't feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I canceled it, but we'll do it in the future."

SExpressing his frustration, he had said, "In terms of honesty, the only thing I can say is, every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don't go anywhere. They just don't go anywhere."