President Donald Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin for over an hour on Friday, with much of the conversation focusing on the possibility of penning a new nuclear accord with Moscow and Beijing, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders has said.
“They discussed a nuclear agreement, both new and extended, and the possibility of having conversations with China on that as well,” Sanders said.
According to the spokeswoman, the discussion also included the extension of the existing New START treaty between Russia and the US, with the 2010 treaty committing both countries to reducing the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers by half and the creation of a new inspection and verification regime.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov confirmed Friday that Putin and Trump spoke on Friday, saying the discussion “lasted almost nearly an hour and a half” and promising to provide more details on the conversation at a later time.
Sanders said that in addition to nuclear issues, Friday’s discussion included the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the Mueller report, trade, Ukraine, and the crisis in Venezuela. According to the spokeswoman, Trump had urged Putin to put pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program, and reminded Moscow that “all options continue to be on the table” regarding Venezuela. Sanders noted that Friday’s talks were “an overall positive conversation.”
Source: AFP
