Russians Described Summit 'Verbal Agreements,' US Officials Scramble For Clarity
"As Russians Describe Verbal Agreements At Summit, U.S. Officials Scramble For Clarity," Washington Post, July 18, '18. *1 hr. ago.
Two days after President Trumps summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian officials offered a string of assertions about what the two leaders had achieved. Important verbal agreements were reached at the Helsinki meeting, Russias ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, told reporters in Moscow Wednesday, including preservation of the New Start and INF agreements, major bilateral arms control treaties whose futures have been in question. Antonov also said that Putin had made specific and interesting proposals to Washington on how the two countries could cooperate on Syria.
But officials at the most senior levels across the U.S. military, scrambling since Monday to determine what Trump may have agreed to on national security issues in Helsinki, had little to no information Wednesday.
At the Pentagon, as press officers remained unable to answer media questions about how the summit might impact the military, the paucity of information exposed an awkward gap in internal administration communications. The uncertainty surrounding Moscows suggestion of some sort of new arrangement or proposal regarding Syria, in particular, was striking because Gen. Joseph Votel, who heads U.S. Central Command, is scheduled to brief reporters on Syria and other matters Thursday. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis did not attend Wednesdays Cabinet meeting with Trump and has not appeared in public this week or commented on the summit.
Current and former officials said its not unusual for it to take at least several days for aides to finalize and distribute internal memos documenting high-level conversations. Adding to the delay in the case of Trumps Russia summit is the fact that the presidents longest encounter with Putin, a two hour-plus session, included no other officials or note-takers, just interpreters. Trump continued to praise his private meeting with Putin and an expanded lunch with aides as a tremendous success and tweeted a promise of big results, but State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the administration was assessing . . .three takeaways, which she characterized as modest. They were the establishment of separate working groups of business leaders and foreign policy experts, and follow-up meetings between the national security council staffs of both countries.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders listed a number of topics that had been discussed, including Syrian humanitarian aid, Irans nuclear ambition, Israeli security, North Korean denuclearization, Ukraine and the occupation of Crimea, reducing Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals, and of course your favorite topic, Russias interference in our elections. But while Trump told lawmakers this week that he and Putin had made significant progress toward addressing these issues and more, neither Sanders nor any other U.S. official from Trump on down has offered specifics on what was accomplished on those subjects beyond what she called the beginning of a dialogue with Russia....
More, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/as-russians-describe-%e2%80%98verbal-agreements%e2%80%99-at-summit-us-officials-scramble-for-clarity/ar-AAAhj8u
- President Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin attend a joint press conference after a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, on July 16, 2018.
dalton99a
(81,455 posts)especially what the traitor agreed to
appalachiablue
(41,131 posts)been uncovered by now, better be. This is high priority material impacting national security and more.
Nitram
(22,794 posts)what was agreed to. I can't wait.
Harker
(14,015 posts)So long as he and Trumpsky were alone for a moment, or whispered in each other's ears, Putin can claim sweeping verbal agreements and concessions - and they'll be at least credible given Trumpsky's globally evident stupidity.
ROB-ROX
(767 posts)All that was done at the private meeting was two scoops was given new programming to screw the USA and WORLD again. Those in the white house have no idea what happened as per normal because they do not know anything.............The CIA has to water board this sucker to save the world....