Washington and Kremlin have, in individual statements, confirmed that United States President Donald Trump proposed the White House as one of the venues for a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Russia first revealed the invitation on Monday, in a sign that the Kremlin may be trying to move beyond the diplomatic expulsions by the US and a number of the UK’s allies in response to a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy living in England.

Kremlin foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov told the media on Monday, “During a telephone conversation between our presidents, Trump suggested that the first meeting could be held in Washington,” Russian news agency TASS reported. Ushakov said a date for the talks has not yet been discussed.

The phone call took place on March 20. Trump had told reporters on the same day that he expected to “see President Putin in the not-too-distant future.”

A week later, however, the United States expelled 60 Russian diplomats to show solidarity with the United Kingdom. Russia retaliated with reciprocal expulsions. But by Monday, both countries reportedly agreed to allow the diplomats to be replaced, and the White House responded to Ushakov’s statement by confirming that it was among “a number of potential venues” for the meeting, The Guardian reported.

Ushakov said in Moscow on Monday that Putin would like to pursue Trump’s suggestion, and called it “a rather positive idea”, The New York Times reported.

“After the conversation, which was constructive and business-like and touched upon many issues, there was another breakdown in our bilateral relations, 60 diplomats were expelled, our consulate was closed and Russia had to furnish a tit-for-tat response to that,” Ushakov told TASS. “Since the telephone conversation took place, there haven’t been specific discussions on a possible meeting,” he said.

He added that Russia believed such an event “would be rather important and beneficial for both countries, as well as for the entire global community”.

However, it is still unclear whether the meeting will take place, as just hours later, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri S Peskov dismissed Ushakov’s remarks, saying they were not correct, The New York Times reported. And, while press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that a White House meeting was discussed, she played it down saying, “We have nothing further to add at this time.”