Putin Celebrates Trump’s Call For Russia’s G7 Return

The Associated Press reports:

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that he’s happy to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump once Washington is ready to hold the summit and welcomed Trump’s call to bring Moscow back into the G7 group of leading industrialized nations.

“It wasn’t us who left,” he said. “Colleagues refused to come to Russia on well-known grounds. We will be ready to greet them all in Moscow,” he added. Speaking to reporters in Qingdao, China, Putin said that some nations, including Austria, have offered to host his summit with Trump, should they have one.

“The U.S. president has repeatedly said that it’s reasonable to hold such a meeting,” Putin said on the sidelines of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. “As soon as the U.S. side is ready, the meeting will take place, depending, of course, on my working schedule.”