German Foreign Minister Hopes Putin, Trump Will Meet At G20 Summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) met with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel in Moscow on June 29.

German Foreign Minister Hopes Putin, Trump Will Meet At G20 Summit

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel says his country hopes to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. leader Donald Trump together at the upcoming Group of 20 (G20) meeting in Hamburg, Russian state media report.

During a visit to Moscow on June 29, Gabriel told Putin he hopes the host Germans would have an "opportunity to connect" Putin with his U.S. counterpart during the July 7-8 summit.

"The G20 summit will be a huge event, and we hope that on the sidelines of the summit we will have an opportunity to connect you with the U.S. president," Gabriel said at a Kremlin meeting, according to a translation by the Russian state-run TASS news agency.

Gabriel also said Berlin expected agreements to be reached at the G20 meeting on climate-related matters.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that furthering the goals of the Paris climate deal will be one of the central tasks of the summit.

Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement on June 1 and said he wants to negotiate a "fair" deal for his country.

Based on reporting by TASS, Interfax, and Reuters