This is CBS Eye on the World. Here's John Batchelor.

The meeting between the President of the United States and the President of the Russian Federation

mentioned in conversation over the weekend, initiated from a phone call we're told last week

at the end of the week between President Putin and President Trump, a meeting in Budapest.

However, there's a lot of protocol and architecture that must be put in place before the two men

sit down together. And I welcome Mary Kissel, Executive Vice President Stevens, Incorporated,

former senior advisor to the Secretary of State,

who's witnessed the bric-a-brac and protocols and conversations before such meetings.

Everything has to happen so that the day of the event, there are no surprises. However, Mary, a very good evening to you. The surprise right now is that the headlines that we have at this moment are contradictory, ironic, and not conclusive. For example, the AFP out of Paris, enchez-France, is saying that the European leaders

are backing the president's move toward peace. At the same time, we have headlines out of Lavrov's

side of the equation, saying, there's no truth to the idea that we've postponed a meeting.

You can't postpone where it wasn't scheduled.

Then we have from the U.S. side, well, at least the non-Russian side and non-Ukrainian side,

saying that the meeting between the two secretaries of state and foreign minister on the phone virtually,

these things are all gone virtually now in general, was positive.

So, Mary, I have generally an understanding that they're talking about it, but where are we

in the process?

Is this regular that you have hesitation and aggression and defensiveness prior to a meeting at this scale?

Good evening to you.

Good evening, too, John.

Well, this isn't a regular situation.

It's not as if the president and his team are sitting down to negotiate a trade agreement, for instance, with a good friend like the UK.

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