INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Trump was criticized for failing to confront Putin over Moscow's interference in the 2016 US electionWASHINGTON/JOHANNESBURG: Russian
President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he wanted U.S
President Donald Trump to be his guest in Moscow, an idea that the White House welcomed despite lingering criticism over the Helsinki
summit.The Russian leader said on a visit to South Africa for an economic conference that "appropriate conditions" were required in both
countries for another summit to take place, an apparent reference to a political uproar in the United States last week after the two men
met.The White House said Trump was enthusiastic about another summit
Trump has said he wants to improve ties between the two nuclear powers, whose relations have dipped to a post-Cold War low in recent
years."President Trump looks forward to having President Putin to Washington after the first of the year, and he is open to visiting Moscow
upon receiving a formal invitation," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.Separately, U.S
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said he was considering the possibility of the first talks in years between the defence chiefs of the United
Mattis said there had been no decision.Trump was criticized at home for failing to confront Putin publicly over Moscow's interference in the
election, and for seeming to contradict his own intelligence agencies on the threat from Russia
Trump has defended his conduct.The White House said no agreements were reached in the one-on-one meeting with Putin other than having
national security teams meet
No policy changes came out of the summit, Mattis said on Friday, adding he had also not been given new direction on Syria.Moscow's military
support starting in 2015 of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian war, Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and the
intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the election have soured relations.Russia is under punitive sanctions imposed by the United
States and the European Union and wants them lifted.Putin told reporters on Friday: "We need for the appropriate conditions to exist, to be
created, including in our countries" for more U.S.-Russia summits.Putin went on to say Russia was ready to greet Trump in Moscow
He has such an invitation, I told him that."Following the backlash in the United States over Trump's cordial public tone with Putin in
and Russian officials backed away from Trump's proposal to schedule a follow-up meeting in Washington in the fall.The White House on
Wednesday postponed that invitation until next year, when a federal investigation of Russian election interference could be finished.The
last time Trump was in the Russian capital was as a private citizen in 2013 to attend a Miss Universe beauty pageant
That visit surfaced in the FBI investigation of Russian election activities in the form of a dossier containing allegations that Trump had
spent time with Russian prostitutes there
Trump has denied the allegations.Efforts by both Trump and Putin to achieve detente have been fiercely resisted by U.S
lawmakers, including some in Trump's own Republican Party, accusing him of being too friendly toward Putin, whom they consider an adversary
intelligence agencies concluded last year that Moscow waged an influence campaign to help Trump win the White House by hacking into
Democratic Party computers and using fake social media accounts to denigrate Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.Trump, whose advisers have
warned him Russia continues its interference in the run-up to congressional elections in November, met with his national security aides on
Friday to discuss election security.A White House statement said the meeting addressed threats to elections "from malign foreign actors" and
efforts on providing cyber security assistance to state and local authorities.Trump has repeatedly denied his campaign colluded with Russia
and has characterized the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as a witch hunt
Trump is infuriated by any suggestion he might owe his election victory to Russia.Trump on Friday denied knowing in advance about a 2016
meeting his son Donald Trump Jr
and other campaign staff had at Trump Tower with a group of Russians who offered damaging information on Clinton
A CNN report said his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen planned to tell Mueller that Trump did know of the meeting.© Thomson Reuters 2018(This
story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
