A Meeting of the Minds: Trump Set to Meet With Putin in Vietnam During Asia Trip

by Robert Carbery

In what I’m sure the MSM will promptly melt down over, the Kremlin has confirmed that there is a good possibility that President Trump and President Putin will meet at the international summit in Vietnam. The likeliness of a Trump-Putin meeting seems to be very high for the world’s leaders of the top nuclear-armed nations.
Andrew Akulov of the Strategic Culture Foundation noted that Trump told Fox News recently it was imperative that he meet the Russian leader. This meeting is necessary due to the spiraling North Korea conundrum. Whether anything will come of it, remains to be seen, but it can’t hurt. Trump pushing this meeting is a positive step in the right direction.
Trump and Putin first met at the G20 summit in Hamburg in July when they talked about allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Despite attempting to mend ties between the two heavily-armed countries, relations have unfortunately gotten worse since then. In August, Trump was essentially coerced into signing additional sanctions against Russia even though the Donald promoted himself as a leader who would normalize our relationship with the former Soviet Union. America voted for that but the promise has far from materialized.
This context of cold relations provides a difficult backdrop to the upcoming meeting. Any kind of reset seems far from reality at this point as tensions flare in the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula. Whatever comes of it, we are long overdue in ceasing our decline in diplomacy over recent months. It is far from time to stop digging a hole for ourselves. At some point, there will be no climbing out of it.
As the convoluted Syrian civil war finally nears its end, both Russia and the U.S. will bear responsibility for ending the conflict once and for all while also installing a new stable nation from the rubble. The two powers should not be divided on this issue but rather work together to do what is best for the war torn nation. In addition to discussing North Korea and Ukraine, the agenda will also include further cooperation on other calamities underway in Libya and Afghanistan, both ravaged by reckless American military intervention.
The channels of communication cannot be ended between the U.S. and Russia. If anything, we need to collaborate more to promote regional security around the world as opposed to pursuing separate goals, risking disastrous war with the Russian Bear in the process. Sure, we both want what is best for our own countries, but we have much more in common than we think. Contact appears to be maintained so far despite the deteriorating diplomacy highlighted by the MSM whenever they can. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has maintained a dialogue with his counterpart, especially over the Syrian conflict, raising the possibility of joint operations to promote peace and an end to war.
Russia is on nearly the same level as the U.S. in terms of global power. They have proven quite effective in dismantling the jihadists in Syria. If the U.S. wants to get things done, we need to work with Russia to obtain international security. This cannot be done on our own. Trump needs to reach out and he seems to be doing so.
We will see if anything comes of it.
 
 
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