Trump, Putin will meet July 16 in Helsinki for first summit

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on July 16 in Helsinki, Finland, the White House announced Thursday.

“The two leaders will discuss relations between the United States and Russia and a range of national security issues,” according to a statement issued jointly in Washington and Moscow.

Trump said Wednesday that “getting along with Russia and with China and with everybody is a very good thing.” He said he and Putin would discuss Syria, Ukraine and “many other subjects” at the meeting.

“The president hopes that the meeting can help reduce tension and leads to productive engagement that improves peace and security around the world,” Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters told reporters aboard Air Force One during a flight from Wisconsin to Washington.

Trump will head to Helsinki aware that lawmakers from both parties believe he has been too cozy with Putin, a national security adversary, at the same time his trade policies and brash style have managed to alienate long-term U.S. allies, as well as NATO.

Before meeting with Putin, Trump will attend the July 11 and 12 NATO summit in Brussels. Last year, Trump dressed down NATO members in Brussels for not paying enough for NATO’s defense. Former British Ambassador to the United States Christopher Meyer speculated on Twitter that Trump will use “the NATO summit for a punch-up to polish his macho credentials before meeting Putin.”

Senate Democrats also were critical of Trump’s plan to meet with Putin.

“For President Trump to reward President Putin with a one-on-one meeting while Russia actively continues to interfere with our elections and undermine the integrity of the transatlantic alliance, proves his priorities are out of whack,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.

Top intelligence officials in the Trump administration have acknowledged the Russians meddled in the 2016 presidential election, which Putin has denied.

Trump has maintained that there was no collusion between Russia and his campaign, which he tweeted again Thursday before the announcement.

Asked later if Trump continues to believe Russia’s no-meddling assertions, Walters responded, “He has again said that there was no interference on behalf of his campaign in the election.”

Trump and Putin first met face to face in Hamburg, Germany, at the G20 Summit in July last year. The two leaders hit it off so well that a meeting scheduled to last for 30 minutes extended beyond two hours.

Afterward then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who also attended the meeting, told reporters that Trump began the meeting by raising the American people’s concerns about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Putin denied the charge. Tillerson said the two leaders agreed to move forward.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is likely to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo within two weeks. Ryabkov said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies that Moscow already has made a proposal regarding the specifics of the meeting and is awaiting Washington’s response.

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.