Trump-Putin summit to unfold in Cold War venue Helsinki on July 16
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will
hold their first summit on July 16 in Helsinki, a renowned venue for
Cold War diplomacy, with nervous U.S. allies in Europe and Russia
skeptics looking on.
The Kremlin and the White House simultaneously announced the place and date of the summit a day after striking a deal on holding the meeting following a visit to Moscow on Wednesday by U.S. national security adviser John Bolton.”The two leaders will discuss relations between the United States and Russia and a range of national security issues,” the White House said in a statement similar to one released by the Kremlin.
Trump will meet Putin after attending a July 11-12 summit of NATO leaders and making a visit to Britain. The summit’s date will give Putin a chance to attend the July 15 closing ceremony of the soccer World Cup which his country is hosting.
The two leaders have met twice before on the sidelines of international gatherings and spoken at least eight times by phone. They have also made positive comments about each other from time to time with Putin praising Trump’s handling of the economy.
Their summit could irritate U.S. allies however who want to isolate Putin, such as Britain, or countries like Ukraine who are nervous about what they see as Trump’s overly friendly attitude toward the Russian leader.
It is also likely to go down badly among critics who question Trump’s commitment to the NATO alliance and who have been concerned about his frictions with longtime allies such as Canada and Germany over trade.
Trump-Putin summit set for July 16 in Finland as president defends Kremlin on election interference and slams 'Hillary/Russia' corruption instead
- The two world leaders will meet on July 16 in Helsinki, Finland
- In a tweet before the summit was announced, Trump defended Russia on accusations of election interference and slammed Clinton instead
- Trump will attend a NATO summit in Brussels next month and then go to London and Scotland
- National Security Advisor John Bolton was hashing out details this week in Moscow
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says a meeting would be helpful to the countries' relations, in spite of Russian election meddling in 2018
- Bolton slapped down allegations while in Moscow that it would prove there's some 'nexus' between President Trump and Russia's election meddling