Nigeria: Trump says US will invite Putin to G20 summit
By Zuleihat Owuiye, Mamos Nigeria
The United States will invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to December’s G20 summit in Miami, a senior administration official said Thursday, though President Donald Trump expressed doubt that Putin would come.
“All G20 members will be invited to attend ministerial meetings and the leaders’ summit,” the official said in a statement.
Asked about the invitation, Trump told reporters he was unaware of it. “I don’t know that he’s coming. I doubt he’d come, to be honest with you,” he said.
Still, Trump backed including Putin: “If he came, it would be probably very helpful.” He criticized former President Barack Obama for removing Russia from the G8 in 2014 after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. “President Putin, he was very offended by that — rightfully,” Trump said.
The invitation would mark a significant shift. Putin has been largely shunned by the West since ordering the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, though Trump has sought warmer ties with Moscow. Trump hosted Putin in Alaska in August — the Russian leader’s first visit to Western soil since the war began.
The US holds the G20 presidency this year and plans a December summit in Florida. Putin has not attended a G20 since 2019, missing recent gatherings due to the pandemic and the war. In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him over the Ukraine conflict, prompting him to avoid countries that could detain him. The US is not an ICC member and Trump has opposed the court.
The Kremlin said Thursday that Putin had not decided whether to attend. “No such decisions have been made yet,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow. Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin as saying Moscow was invited “at the highest level” for the December 14-15 summit.
Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has pushed to restore ties with Russia to end the Ukraine war. He initially pledged to stop the fighting in 24 hours, but his efforts have yielded few concrete results despite multiple rounds of Moscow-Kyiv talks.
