Trump Says He Would Like to See Putin at G20 Summit in Miami, Doubts Russian Leader Will Attend

President Donald Trump said that he would like to see his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, at the G20 summit in Miami, even as he expressed doubt that the Russian leader would actually come. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the White House intends to invite Putin to the G20 summit in December, while a senior administration official said Russia would be welcome at both ministerial meetings and the leaders' summit. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Pankin said there was already an invitation for Russia to participate "at the highest level," but it is too early to say who will attend. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov likewise said Moscow will decide closer to the date who will represent Russia. Trump said he knew nothing about any official invitation yet, but added that "if he came, it would be probably very helpful." "I'm of the opinion that you talk to everybody. I'm not one of these guys who, 'Oh, let's not talk to him,'" Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. "If you're a smart person, if you have control over your emotions… I'm somebody that believes in talking." "I don't know that he's coming. I'd be honest with you, I doubt he'd come," he added. The summit is scheduled for December 14-15 in Miami, with Trump set to host it at his Doral golf resort. Putin has not attended a G20 summit in person since 2019, initially because of the pandemic and later amid the fallout from the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Trump also reiterated that Russia's exclusion from what used to be the G8 in 2014 was "a stupid thing to do." According to him, G7 leaders now spend much of their time discussing Russia anyway, and he suggested that the conflict with Kiev might not have escalated the way it did if Moscow had remained in the format. Moscow, however, has little interest in the old G8 logic Trump keeps invoking. Peskov previously said the G8 "has lost its relevance" for Russia, while the G7 looks "bleak" and "ineffective" compared to the G20. He has also argued that the G7 no longer reflects the real balance of the global economy, whereas the G20 includes the major growth centers and "better reflects the economic locomotives of the world."