Donald Trump has invited Vladimir Putin to the G20 summit in Miami in December, Marco Rubio said.
It was rumoured in April that Mr Trump planned to invite the Russian president to the summit, which will be hosted at the US president’s golf club.
Mr Rubio is the first to publicly confirm the news. “If you only meet with people that you agree with, then these are very nice meetings, but nothing happens,” he told reporters during the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Wednesday.
“In order to solve problems, you have to meet with the people you disagree with, or the people that you might have some issues with.
“So we’ve invited President Putin to the G20, we think that’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. There’s an opportunity in December if that happens.”
Marco Rubio says meeting adversaries is necessary to ‘solve problems’ – AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura
Putin has been treated as a pariah by much of the West since invading Ukraine, but Mr Trump greeted him in Alaska for a summit last year.
Speaking in September 2025, Mr Trump also suggested that he might invite Xi Jinping, the Chinese premier, to the summit.
Mr Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, are set to land in Washington on Wednesday evening for their first state visit in more than a decade. It is not clear whether Mr Trump still intends to extend a G20 invitation to the Chinese leader.
The two men’s presence on American soil would raise the stakes for an annual gathering of leaders from the world’s 20 biggest economies.
Hosting the major international summit at his Trump National Doral Golf Club is a significant coup for the US president, who had planned to host a G7 summit there in 2020 but changed course under intense pressure and ethical questions about profiting from the global gathering.
The pandemic meant it was held online instead.
Mr Trump said Miami would benefit from the influx of delegates, media and campaigners and that his club was the ideal location as it was “right next” to the city’s airport.
On Tuesday, during an UNGA press briefing, Mr Trump claimed Putin was willing to meet him to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters following a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky at UNGA, he said: “We’ve had a meeting in Alaska already. I think he’d do another one. He’s willing to meet. He’d like to see the war ended.”
Mr Trump said that he “did not know about Miami”, referring to the summit later this year, and added that he and Mr Zelensky were “figuring out” an end to the war.
Mr Rubio added that the US would be open to an additional meeting with Putin in the future.
“If there’s another opportunity for [Mr Trump and Putin] to meet, and there’s a purpose behind the meeting, that would be good.
“They’ve had conversations on the phone. I don’t know the number – I think at least a dozen times they have spoken. So, we’ll remain open to engaging.”
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