Trump says he'd 'love' to host Putin, Xi at next year's G20 summit in US
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sept. 5 he'd "love" to host the Russian and Chinese leaders during a G20 summit in Miami in 2026.
The next year's meeting of the G20, a forum of the world's largest economies, will be held at Trump National Doral golf course in Florida, the U.S. president announced during a press briefing at the Oval Office.
Apart from the 19 member states, the EU, and the African Union, Trump said he intends to invite additional observers, including Poland.
When asked whether Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to join the event, Trump said he would "love them to if they want to."
The U.S. president added that Putin and Xi could join as "observers," despite Russia and China being full members of the group.
"I'm not sure they want to be an observer. If they want to, we can certainly talk," Trump added.
Last month, Trump hosted Putin in Alaska as part of Washington-led efforts to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.
The Aug. 15 summit in Anchorage ended without any concrete agreements on ending the hostilities and was seen as a clear break from the Western diplomatic isolation imposed on Putin over the invasion of Ukraine.
Xi has not visited the U.S. since 2015, his first and so far only state visit since becoming China's president in 2013.
After returning to office in January, Trump's foreign policy aimed to restore relations with Russia in order to pull Moscow away from Beijing. Despite the efforts, Russian-Chinese ties have only seemed to grow stronger, as Putin praised the "unprecedented level" of the relationship during his recent four-day visit to China.
Commenting on pictures of Xi, Putin, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi together at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, Trump said it "looks like we've lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China."
