Reports about forthcoming Reykjavik meeting between Putin, Trump rejected

By Azernews

By Kamila Aliyeva

A Sunday Times report claiming that a meeting has been planned between US President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Iceland is “100 percent false”, said Trump’s incoming press secretary and director of communications.

Moscow also denied Western Media reports on the preparation of this meeting. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti that this issue is not negotiated at the moment.

The Sunday Times reported about the upcoming meeting between two leaders on Sunday night. the newspaper urged that the newly appointed U.S. president is going to make his first visit most likely to Iceland, and moreover there he will have a meeting with Putin. Meanwhile Trumps team has informed British officials of plans for a summit with the Russian president in Reykjavik.

In addition, The Sunday Times wrote that the plans were discussed at the Russian Embassy in London and Moscow intends to agree to hold the summit. The newspaper also reported that Trump intends to begin work on the preparation of an agreement with Russia on nuclear arms limitation and a reset of bilateral relations.

Venue of the summit has been apparently chosen by analogy as it evokes memories of the historic meeting taken place 30 years ago between the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan. At that time, in Reykjavik, they have taken an important step towards ending the Cold War and laid the foundations for strategic arms reductions.

The first one to deny this information was the spokesperson for Trump, who called the article “100 percent false”. In turn, the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom in comments for RIA Novosti named The Sunday Times posts "nonsense" and "an attempt by the Britons to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency." In addition, in its microblog on Twitter the Embassy reacted to the published "sensation" with the question: "Fake news as the new mainstream?”

Embassy of the Russian Federation in Iceland also told RIA Novosti that they had no information about a possible meeting in Reykjavik. Iceland said it was not aware of such a plan but showed willingness to host a summit to help improve relations between Washington and Moscow.

"If officials in Washington DC make a formal request for the Icelandic government to organize a summit in Reykjavik we will look at it positively and make this our input to improve relations between the U.S. and Russia, remember the summit at Hofdi house in 1986," Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson said.

The discussion of The Sunday Times post concluded by Dmitry Peskov claiming that "for the moment there has been no discussion about a meeting".