President Donald Trump may meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin this summer, he told reporters Friday morning.
JUST IN: Trump tells reporters he may meet with Russia’s Putin this summer. pic.twitter.com/m3n8oH0H6F
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) June 15, 2018
Trump recently suggested that Russia be readmitted in the G7, or Group of Seven. The G7 consists of the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K., and it represents more than 62 percent of the global net wealth.
“I think it would be an asset to have Russia back in,” Trump said earlier this week during a press conference in Singapore. “I think it would be good for the world. I think it would be good for Russia. I think it would be good the United States. I think it would be good for all of the countries of the current G7. I think the G8 would be better.”
Russia was suspended from the G8, as it was called at the time, in 2014 for its annexation of Crimea.
The President also said Friday that North Korea has begun returning the remains of missing U.S. troops from the Korean War.
President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un agreed Tuesday to return the remains of U.S. military personnel who were missing in action during the Korean War.
In a statement signed by both Trump and Kim during the historic summit in Singapore, the two countries agreed to the “immediate repatriation” of those fallen service members who are already identified.
Roughly 7,800 Americans remain unaccounted for from the 1950-1953 war. The Korean military conflict technically lasted from 1950 to 1953 but was ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.
Of those 7,800 Americans, 5,300 are believed to have been lost in battles in North Korea or prisoner-of-war camps.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said just a few days before the summit that talks about returning the remains of the missing Americans and South Koreans from the war was a top priority of the summit.
The U.S. and North Korea agreed to have follow-up talks between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean officials.
Past efforts to recover U.S. war remains in North Korea ended abruptly more than a decade ago because of North Korea’s nuclear development and lack of guaranteeing the safety of American recovery teams sent into the country.
Between 1996 and 2005, 30 recovery missions conducted by joint U.S.-North Korea military search teams recovered 229 sets of American remains.
Earlier this year, the leaders of North and South Korea signed an agreement to officially end the Korean War after 65 years, which will be declared later this year, and to work to denuclearize and establish a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met in the Demilitarized Zone, in Panmunjom, and signed the “Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification on the Korean Peninsula.”
