President Putin was speaking about his relationship with Chinese President Xi at the Valdai event. He praised Russia’s relationship and lauded President Xi’s proposal for a Global Civilization Initiative. He said at one point that they were both in a holding room without interpreters waiting to go out. Neither of them spoke the other’s language. “It was enough to say one word, and we understood everything without words,” Putin said with a smile. The moderator then asked if he would also be able to do that when he met with Trump as well. “It will be more difficult,” the President joked.

“We are grateful to the First Lady of the United States for her work in the humanitarian sphere. I say this with complete sincerity, without any irony. This applies to prisoner exchanges and the resolution of certain other humanitarian issues. But, be that as it may, everything that casts a shadow over our relations with the United States—and these factors that cast a shadow over our relations and undermine them—did not arise yesterday or today; they have been developing over the course of decades. We would very much like to see these factors that divide us become a thing of the past and new prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation emerge.

“As for the possible trilateral meeting you alluded to, I know the media has been discussing it. We are all for it. But there is a question. What is it? We need an agenda. We need to understand what the agenda for any trilateral meetings will be—what we’ll be discussing. But overall, any dialogue can only be beneficial.”