(Russia Matters) Later this week, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will hold their first face-to-face meeting. Ahead of this widely anticipated encounter, on the sidelines of the July 7-8 Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, we have asked eight eminent experts to weigh in on several questions. While each respondent offers his own specific points and emphases, some opinions came up repeatedly. The most popular overall recommendation to Trump and his team was to find ways to avoid war with Russia, with seven of eight experts referring to the need for de-confliction measures. […]
Henry Hale: While I’m not sure how exactly they would break down in the format of a numbered list, probably four of my five recommendations can be summed up in the following sentence: When the U.S. president next meets Putin, he needs to strike a careful, subtle balance between standing firm on issues where Russian behavior seriously threatens international stability (especially annexing other countries’ territory and cyberattacks) or basic human rights (repressive, anti-democratic behavior) and strongly pressing for cooperation on issues of genuine mutual interest and high global importance. […]
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