Trump, Putin to meet in Finland in July
ABC NEWS – President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16.
The United States and Russia simultaneously revealed the details of the high-stakes meeting in separate statements Thursday morning.
The White House said in its statement that “the two leaders will discuss relations between the United States and Russia and a range of national security issues.” The Kremlin said “the present state and perspective for further development of Russian-American relations, and also current issues from the international agenda” will be discussed.
The two countries first announced plans for a summit after White House national security adviser John Bolton on Wednesday met with Putin and other senior Russian officials at the Kremlin.
The Trump-Putin summit arrives on the heels of a historic — yet controversial — meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12.
As president, Trump has met Putin briefly twice before. They talked one-on-one for two hours during the G20 summit in Germany in July 2017 and met again on the sidelines of a November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam.
July’s meeting will be the first full-fledged, bilateral summit between the U.S. and Russia since former President Barack Obama met then- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2013.
Trump’s sit-down with Putin is expected to be fraught with controversy. Special counsel Robert Mueller continues to investigate whether any members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials in their efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The upcoming summit also comes amid worries about Russia’s behavior from some of Washington’s longtime European allies.
