Donald Trump will not meet Vladimir Putin again till Russia is cleared of interference in US elections, says NSA John Bolton

Washington: US President Donald Trump believes he should not meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin till the “witch hunt” over Moscow’s alleged interference in American elections concludes, and as such the next bilateral meeting between the two would take place in 2019, his top national security adviser said on Wednesday. The two leaders had held their first bilateral summit in Helsinki , Finland on 16 July, vowing a fresh start to troubled relations between their countries. [caption id=“attachment_4762441” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Donald Trump met Vladimir Putin at the Helsinki Summit earlier this week. AP[/caption] “The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we’ve agreed that it will be after the first of the year,” National Security Adviser John Bolton said. Trump last week had asked Bolton to explore the possibility of meeting Putin this fall. During their meeting, they had also expressed a desire to cooperate on global challenges, after talks on an array of issues from Syria, Ukraine and China to trade tariffs and the size of their nuclear arsenals.