Trump Invites Putin to the G20 in Miami, His First Summit in Person Since Invading Ukraine
Marco Rubio announced the invitation after meeting Sergey Lavrov at the U.N. The December summit is set for Trump's Doral resort, and Putin still faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.
President Donald Trump has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Group of 20 summit in Miami in December, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday, opening the door to Putin's first in-person appearance at a G20 leaders' meeting since he launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
"In order to solve problems, you have to meet with the people that you disagree with or the people that you might have some issues with," Rubio told reporters in New York, where world leaders are gathered for the U.N. General Assembly. "So we've invited President Putin to the G20. We think it's an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president, but with other world leaders. We hope that's an invitation he'll accept."
Rubio spoke after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the assembly. The summit is scheduled for Dec. 14-15 at Trump National Doral Miami, the president's golf resort. The New York Times reported that Putin has not attended a G20 summit in person since 2019. The Kremlin said earlier this year that Putin might travel to Miami or send another representative.
Trump floated the idea in April, telling reporters it would be "very helpful" if Putin came. "I go to these meetings of the G7, and about 90% of the meeting was talking about Russia and what's going on with Russia," he said then. "And I said, 'Why'd you throw them out?'" Russia was expelled from what was then the G8 after it annexed Crimea in 2014.
The invitation lands as Washington struggles to broker an end to the war. In early September, Trump said he had a "great conversation" with Putin by phone and blamed the stalemate on the fact that Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "hate each other." Trump met Zelenskyy at the U.N. this week, and Zelenskyy said he hoped Trump would help end the war "before winter."
In his own General Assembly speech on Wednesday, Zelenskyy urged more economic pressure on Moscow. "When someone gives Russia more money through trade, they give this war more time," he said. He warned that Russia's war could spread to other parts of Europe and that AI could decide battlefield outcomes as early as next year.
Moscow showed little sign of softening. "We are not going to have a pause in our special military operation," Lavrov told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, accusing Europe of seeking a pause only to "pump the Kyiv regime with weapons." Rubio remained cautiously hopeful. "I think both sides have expressed an interest in some limited ceasefire that involves grain and energy," he said. "Obviously, you know, that won't be easy, either." Zelenskyy said Kyiv remains open to a maritime truce in the Black Sea and is "waiting for Russia's response."
Putin's travel is complicated by a 2023 International Criminal Court arrest warrant over the alleged deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. Member states are obliged to arrest him on their soil, but the United States is not a member of the court, so the warrant carries no force in Miami.
