U.S. officials ignoring Trump plans to invite Putin to White House

Officials at the U.S. National Security Council have
been deliberately ignoring U.S. President Trump’s request to invite Russian
President Putin to the White House, the Washington Post reported on June 17.
Trump made the request after an informal meeting with Putin at the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam in November. Officials in the White
House have been working on such a meeting, a National Security official said.
Last week, Trump proposed that Russia return to the G8 bloc of advanced economies.
He reportedly told leaders at last week’s G7 summit in Canada that he believes
Crimea should belong to the Russia, according to anonymous diplomats cited by
BuzzFeed News.

In response to this news report, the U.S. State
Department released a June 18 transcript of a press conference with reporters
in which it reiterated its foreign policy on Ukraine. “We support Ukraine’s
territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, and our
Crimea policy remains unchanged,” a senior State Department official said. “Our
Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia ends its occupation
and returns Crimea to Ukraine.”

Zenon Zawada: Trump ceded
his foreign policy to the neo-conservative anti-Putin hawks upon his election,
but seems to have retained his personal convictions in seeking compromise with
Russia over Ukraine, which he expressed throughout his presidential campaign.
We don’t expect he will have success in pursuing these convictions in the next
two years, considering the entire Western establishment is committed to
preserving the post-World War Two order, which, among other things, is
committed to preserving national borders at all costs.

At the same time, the nationalist tide is rising in
Europe and we expect the political configuration will change dramatically in
the mid-term, which could give Trump the opening he’s been looking for to lead
the West in relaxing sanctions and to begin to renew relations with Russia.