The prospects for holding a summit between Russia and the United States in Budapest will depend on the American side, which initiated the idea. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, clarifying the situation regarding the possibility of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.
"President Trump suggested to President Putin that they meet in Budapest. President Putin said: 'Yes, let's start the preparatory work,'" Lavrov said.
According to him, the initiative for the meeting came from Washington, and the Russian side responded positively to the invitation. “So, the initiative exists and we are polite people. And when we are invited, we say 'yes, let's agree on how, where and when'. And then this invitation is canceled, as President Trump said yesterday at the White House. Later they said that 'cancel' means 'postpone'. It depends on those who initiated the process,” the head of Russian diplomacy emphasized.
Lavrov also said that, although he was not personally invited to the meeting, he had a “good conversation” with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “The initiative was from the United States,” he said. “As I said, I heard that the State Department issued a statement saying that it was a good and productive phone conversation between Rubio and Lavrov. And it was so good that for now, we don’t need meetings.”
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on October 23 that the Russian-American summit in Budapest has not been canceled, but has only been postponed to a more convenient moment.
Thus, it remains unclear if and when the much-talked-about meeting between the two world leaders will take place, while the final decision seems to depend on the White House's stance.
