Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told news outlets on a daily press call today that the in-person meeting Trump said he would have with Putin in Budapest, Hungary, could take place within two weeks or a little later.
“There is a general understanding that there is no need to put anything off,” he said.
Russia initiated the call with Trump after his trip to the Middle East for the signing of a peace plan between Israel and Hamas, Peskov said, adding that Putin “first and foremost wanted to congratulate President Trump on such a success.”
Asked why Hungary was chosen as the location of the meeting, Peskov said that “such decisions are made together.”
“It is a two-sided,” he said. “In this case, of course, Hungary, as a country of both NATO and the EU, still occupies a unique position in terms of its sovereignty, in terms of defending its own interests. This commands respect.”
Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, said in a post on X today that had had spoken with Putin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov and that preparations for the summit “are in full swing.”