President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit, Friday, July 7, 2017, in Hamburg. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
UNITED STATES (VOP TODAY NEWS) – President of the United States Donald Trump during his last conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin said that the United States will win the arms race if the two countries start it, NBC News television channel reported. According to two officials, Trump during the conversation with Putin, which took place on March 20, said: “If you want an arms race, we can do it, but I will win.”

As one American official notes, the Russian President’s statements in the course of a message to the Federal Assembly earlier this month “really brought the president (US-IF) out of himself.”

In turn, the advisers of the American leader on national security told the television channel that at the moment it is not known whether a meeting between Trump and Putin will take place, since Trump “offers a personal meeting practically as part of all his phone conversations with foreign leaders as a formal courtesy.”

Trump’s conversation with Putin took place on March 20 at the initiative of the American side. The American president congratulated Putin on winning the election.As the Kremlin press service reported then, during the conversation “it was agreed to develop further bilateral contacts, including taking into account changes in the leadership of the US Department of State.” “Particular attention is paid to the development of the issue of holding a possible summit meeting,” the report said. It was noted that “in general, the conversation (the two leaders) was constructive, businesslike and focused on overcoming the accumulated problems in Russian-American relations.”