Trump, Putin To Speak On May 2 As Merkel Pays Rare Visit To Russia
U.S. President Donald Trump has scheduled a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 2 just as German Chancellor Angela Merkel is paying a rare visit to Russia.
White House officials said Trump and Putin would likely discuss the civil war in Syria, where Moscow backs the government of President Bashar al-Assad and the United States supports rebels trying to overthrow him.
Trump ordered an air strike on a Syrian air base last month in retaliation for a deadly poison gas attack on civilians he blamed on Assad's government.
Russia denied the Syrian government was responsible for the suspected sarin attack, which killed 90 people.
Trump said after the attack that relations between Washington and Moscow "may be at an all-time low."
Trump and Putin have spoken several times since Trump's election, including last month following an attack on the subway in St. Petersburg.
The Trump-Putin call comes in the midst of the first visit to Russia by Merkel in two years.
Merkel is due to meet with Putin in Sochi on May 2 to discuss the conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, and other matters. It was not clear whether Trump's phone call would dovetail with the Putin-Merkel talks in any way.
Merkel has taken the lead in European attempts to forge a peace settlement in Ukraine.
Expectations are not high for any breakthroughs in either conflict, despite Putin's call for the two countries' relations "to fully normalize" at a meeting with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel in March.
The meeting between Merkel and Putin "will serve to maintain contact, but little else," said Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank in a tweet on May 1.
It will be Merkel's first trip to Russia since May 2015, when she attended ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the Nazi surrender in World War II.
Meanwhile, the top diplomats of Russia and the United States will meet next week and likely discuss Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on May 1.
The meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will be on May 10 or 11 on the sidelines of an Arctic summit in Alaska, it said.
With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
This ends our live blogging for May 1. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.