Vladimir Putin tells Donald Trump that Moscow is open for dialogue

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his US counterpart Donald Trump in a New Year letter on Sunday that Moscow was ready for dialogue on a “wide-ranging agenda”, the Kremlin said following a series of failed attempts to hold a new summit.

At the end of November, Trump abruptly cancelled a planned meeting with Putin on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Argentina, citing tensions about Russian forces opening fire on Ukrainian navy boats and then seizing them.

Trump and Putin also failed to hold a full-fledged meeting in Paris on the sidelines of the centenary commemoration of the Armistice. The two leaders held their one and only summit in Helsinki in July. “Vladimir Putin stressed that the (Russia-US) relations are the most important factor for providing strategic stability and international security,” a Kremlin statement said. “He confirmed that Russia is open for dialogue with the US on the most wide-ranging agenda.”

Moscow has said one of the key issues it wanted to discuss with the US is Washington’s plans to withdraw from a Cold War era nuclear arms pact.

Meanwhile in Beijing, the Chinese foreign ministry on Sunday said that China was willing to work with the US to implement the consensus reached during talks between the two countries’ leaders in Argentina.