Trump’s new National Security Adviser, John Bolton, met with Anatoly Antonov, the Russian Ambassador, at the White House on Thursday.
There, they discussed how to advance international cooperation between the two nations. This was Bolton’s first meeting with top Russian diplomatic officials since stepping in to replace H.R. McMaster.
The meeting between the two parties came amidst President Trump’s refusal to impose further sanctions on Moscow over the alleged involvement of Russia in the poisoning of a Russian spy in U.K.
Nikki Haley, the United Nations Ambassador, claimed on Sunday that the sanctions would be declared by the coming Monday, however, the White House has said in contradiction to the statement provided by Nikki Haley that this is not going to happen.
The top White House economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, told the reporters that Nikki Haley had either “gotten ahead of the curve” or had some confusion regarding the policies, to which she quickly responded by saying, “With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”
President Donald Trump had responded on Wednesday to the mixed messages coming from Haley and Larry Kudlow, the top economic adviser in the White House, saying that the new sanctions would be declared “as soon as they very much deserve it.”
President Donald Trump had said in a press conference on Wednesday, “There has been nobody tougher on Russia than Donald Trump.” He has sent out several tweets regarding the issue in the past.
“Getting along with Russia is a good thing — not a bad thing. Maybe we will and maybe we won’t. And probably no one has been tougher to Russia than Donald Trump.”
During the meeting with the Baltic state leaders, Trump said to the reporters, “Ideally we want to get along with Russia. Getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Maybe we will, maybe we won’t.” He added, “Getting along with Russia would be a good thing, not a bad thing — and just about everybody agrees to that, except very stupid people.”
The tensions between the two parties had been escalating further over the weekend, soon after the United States had joined the U.K. and France in launching missile attacks on Syria’s suspected chemical weapon facilities.
On the other hand, Syria and Russia have denied their involvement in the attacks involving chlorine gas that had killed dozens of citizens.
