Putin to meet with Trump, Macron and Merkel at G20

Russian President Putin wants to discuss international
terrorism, arms control and strategic stability during his first meeting with
U.S. President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg on July 7-8, the
presidential adviser on foreign policy, Yuriy Ushakov, told a July 3 briefing,
as reported by the dw.com news site. The U.S. side is interested in discussing
Ukraine and Syria, Ushakov said. “It’s agreed that the presidents will meet,
but their schedules are rather tight,” he said. “We will look for intervals and
windows with our American partners for holding this most important meeting.”

During their July 8 working breakfast at the G20
summit, the leaders of the Normandy Format – German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
French President Emmanuel Macron and Putin – will discuss the problems of the
international order, “with a particular accent placed on resolving Ukraine,”
Ushakov said, as reported by the RIA Novosti news agency.  

Zenon Zawada: We don’t
expect any breakthroughs for Ukraine from this summit, despite Macron’s call
for new conditions for resolving the warfare in Donbas. Among his proposals was
including an OSCE representative in the Normandy Format talks, which won’t be a
change of much significance. We don’t expect Trump to discuss Ukraine much with
Putin, as he has indicated that he has ceded authority to his diplomatic
advisers to handle foreign policy matters.

We are confident that the
Normandy Format leaders are more-or-less content with the current status quo in
Donbas, which is low-level warfare, and none are interested in destabilization.
Naturally, the Western leaders are interested in ending the warfare but will
remain powerless in doing so, for as long as the Minsk Accords are in place.