US officials are still working to determine whether President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have sufficient areas of substance to discuss that would warrant a bilateral meeting in Vietnam this week.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the US and Russia are working on a “number of difficult areas” but that officials haven’t determined whether the time is appropriate for the two presidents to discuss them.
“When the two leaders meet, is there something sufficiently substantive?” Tillerson said. “No conclusion has been made on that.”
He listed efforts in Syria and the Middle East as top among the issues the two countries are discussing. Trump and Putin will both attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam.
And asked by CNN’s Jeff Zeleny whether the list also still includes Russia’s attempts to interfere in the US election, he said it did.
“It stays on that list,” he said.
