President Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin but not with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G20 summit this week, the White House said Tuesday.
The snubbing at the G20 meeting in Argentina is the first sign that relations with the crown prince are on the skids after he was potentially implicated in the assassination of Saudi dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi, although Mr. Trump has said he is not planning to cut off arms deals and other economic ties with the kingdom.
“The president’s schedule is pretty packed and has a number of sessions that he will be involved in with the G20,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
She wouldn’t rule out “interaction” with the crown prince during the summit that opens Friday.
Mr. Trump will be meeting on the sidelines with Mr. Putin, whose government suffered diplomatic penalties after being implicated in the nerve-agent poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the U.K.
Mr. Trump also will meet with leaders of Argentina, Germany, Japan, India, South Korea and Turkey.
Khashoggi, a U.S. resident who wrote for the Washington Post, was killed Oct. 2 inside a Saudi consulate in Turkey.
Turkey is a chief rival of Saudi Arabia in the region and has been the chief source of intelligence implicating the Saudi government in the killing.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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