Bolton Says Trump Would Welcome Meeting with Putin Next Month in Paris

National security adviser John Bolton said Tuesday that President Trump would welcome a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at next month’s commemorations in France to mark the centennial anniversary of the end of World War I.

“Trump would look forward to meeting Putin in Paris,” Mr. Bolton told reporters during a press conference in Moscow, where the senior White House official was wrapping up a two-day trip to meet with his Russian national security counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, and defense minister Sergey Shoigu.

Mr. Bolton met with Mr. Putin on Tuesday and the Russian president proposed he and Mr. Trump plan to meet on the sidelines of the memorial events, Russia’s official state media TASS reported.

“It will, of course, be very useful to exchange views on the issues of strategic stability, disarmament issues, and regional conflicts,” the Kremlin website quoted Mr. Putin as saying.

“Of course, if the American side is interested in these contacts,” the Russian president added, according to the official news agency TASS.

The Kremlin said that on greeting Mr. Bolton, Mr. Putin recalled his meeting with Mr. Trump at the summit in Helsinki in July, describing it as a “useful, and at times fairly tough, meeting and conversation which ultimately turned out to be fruitful, in my opinion,” the website reported.

“This is why, to be honest, we are sometimes perplexed to see the United States take absolutely unprovoked steps towards Russia that we cannot call friendly,” Mr. Putin was quoted as saying. “We actually do not even respond to your steps, yet this approach continues.”