More lowering of expectations...without much confidence in Trump
U.S. ambassador: Trump-Putin meeting ‘isn’t a summit’
By QUINT FORGEY
| 07/15/2018
President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated meeting on Monday in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin is just that — only a meeting, the U.S. ambassador to Russia said Sunday.
“It isn't a summit. I've heard it called a summit. This is a meeting,” Jon Huntsman said on NBC's “Meet the Press.”
“In fact, it's the first meeting between the two presidents,” Huntsman added. “They've had some pull-asides, one at the G-20 in Hamburg and the other at the APEC Ministerial in Da Nang, Vietnam, but this is really the first time for both presidents to actually sit across the table and have a conversation.”
Unlike previous presidential summits — such as Ronald Reagan’s visit to China in 1984, Huntsman said — Trump and Putin’s get-together in Helsinki will not feature a state dinner, a joint statement or any predetermined policy deliverables.
“You don't know what's going to come out of this meeting, but what it will be is the first opportunity for these presidents to actually sit down across a table, alone and then with their teams, to talk about everything from meddling in the election, to areas where we have some shared interests,” Huntsman said.
Huntsman also said recent developments in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, including the Friday indictment of 12 Russian military officials for hacking the Democratic National Committee, will be a part of Monday's talks.
“That now makes probably almost 30 Russians who have been rolled up by the Mueller indictment. That investigation continues,” Huntsman said. “The bigger picture is we need to hold the Russians accountable for what they did, their malign activity throughout Europe as well. That's a part of the conversation that needs to take place.”
But Huntsman wouldn’t say whether Trump would push Putin for the extradition of the dozen Russian military officers to stand trial in the United States.
“I don't know if he'll make the ask, but it may be part of the agenda. It may be part of their bilateral meeting together. We'll have to see,” Huntsman said, adding that the FBI office and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow would work to advance that goal.
“That doesn't necessarily mean that the Russians are going to follow through with it,” Huntsman cautioned. “But we'll see if those steps will be taken.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/15/trump-russia-huntsman-summit-722217
But, a few hours later, Trump tweeted that the meeting with Putin was "a summit"---undermining his own ambassador.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/trump-tweets-that-his-putin-meeting-is-a-summit-hours-after-huntsman-says-it-isnt-a-summit/
At this point, even Trump's senior policy advisors, who have been shut out of the Putin meeting/summit, should be concerned about what Trump might do when left to his own devices, particularly since he admits he has done no real preparation for the meeting, and he has no clear agenda.
Quote:What, then, is on each leader’s plate? Putin seeks to have the proverbial “cake and eat it too.” However, have no illusions, because at home he cannot afford any substantive “détente” with the United States. For the past six years or so, the dominant domestic propaganda narrative that is also the basis of his popularity has been America’s alleged “war on Russia.” Putin’s brilliance in not only protecting the motherland but also restoring it to some of the glory lost in the collapse of the Soviet Union.
For Putin, the relationship with the West, especially the United States, is a zero-sum game. The West looks for “peace” and “better” relations, while Putin needs victories to bolster his regime during very bleak economic times. His overarching goal is a new “Yalta” meaning a real or imagined
agreement between America and Russia followed by a geographical division into “spheres of influence,” which Putin, as an ardent Soviet patriot, would love to reconstruct. As for any Russian leader, an invitation to the White House would result in a huge domestic political boost.
As to Trump, his agenda seems to boil down to one thing, which is to succeed where Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton failed. His leitmotif seems to be “you could not handle Putin but I can.” It is here where the danger of the “informal summit” lurks. In his efforts to “manage” Putin, Trump may create an illusion that the United States is ready to meet Russia “halfway” on Crimea, on Ukraine, and on sanctions. By dangling a deal in front of Putin that he cannot possibly deliver because of fierce opposition from Congress, the American public, and almost certainly from his own top advisers, Trump may turn a merely hostile Putin into a disappointed Putin, which is far more dangerous.
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http://thehill.com/opinion/international/397037-get-ready-for-summit-with-no-agenda-and-calculated-risks
