The White House has extended a formal invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During a visit to Georgia after meeting with Putin and other officials in Moscow, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton told reporters, “We have invited President Putin to Washington.” The invitation, which he extended to Putin during their meeting, is for sometime early next year and would consist of a “full day of consultations.”
President Trump had first put forward an invitation to the Russian president to visit Washington this fall during a summit in Helsinki. It was later postponed. Putin and Trump are due to meet again in Paris on Nov. 11, on the sidelines of events scheduled to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the end of World War I. It is not yet clear whether Putin has accepted the White House’s invitation.
This would be the first meeting between Putin and a sitting U.S. President on American soil since 2015, when Putin and Obama met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The last time Putin was invited to the White House was during the Bush administration, in September 2005.