Russian President Vladimir Putin
is looking into a possible meeting with Mexican President-Elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador late this year in Mexico or Argentina , Russian news agency Tass reported on Tuesday .
López Obrador, who takes office on Dec. 1 , invited Putin to his inauguration in a meeting on Monday with Russia’s ambassador to Mexico .
Putin met former President Vicente Fox in Mexico in 2004 and returned to attend the 2012 G20 Summit , which brings together the world’s 20 largest economies .
The Russian leader is expected to attend this year’s G20 summit from Nov. 30 to Dec. 1 in Argentina , suggesting a scheduling conflict with López Obrador’s inauguration.
“Argentina is not far away, so there are several options we could look into: a flight to Mexico or a meeting in Argentina,” Tass reported Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov as saying in Vladivostok .
Mexico’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray
, met with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow last November amid efforts to find alternative markets to the United States during a contentious process to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement .
In López Obrador’s meeting with Russian ambassador Viktor Koronelli on Monday, according to a statement from the president-elect’s office, the two discussed the growing numbers of Russian tourists in Mexico, eliminating a visa for Mexican tourists in Russia and Russia’s forthcoming investments in Mexico’s auto sector.
dm