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

The White House announced Thursday morning President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on July 16 in Helsinki, Finland. “ The two leaders will discuss relations between the United States and Russia and a range of national security issues,” according to the statement.

The announcement follows National Security Adviser John Bolton’s visit to Moscow to discuss details of the first Trump-Putin summit. The two leaders first met face to face in Hamburg 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.

This is a developing story. Check back for details.

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter. </s> Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he was ready to meet U.S. president Donald Trump at an Arctic summit in Finland.

Russian President made this remark responding to his Finnish counterpart, who said he would be happy to receive Russian and U.S. presidents in Finland. </s> Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a session of the International Arctic Forum in Arkhangelsk, Russia. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

ARKHANGELSK, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he was ready to meet U.S. president Donald Trump at an Arctic summit in Finland.

Russian president made this remark responding to his Finnish counterpart, who said he would be happy to receive Russian and U.S. presidents in Finland. </s> President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladmir Putin are set to meet on July 16 in Helsinki where the leaders are expected to discuss national security issues as well as the issue of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Moscow and Washington confirmed the location and date of the summit in coordinated statements released Thursday morning.

"President Donald J. Trump and President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will meet on July 16, 2018, in Helsinki, Finland. The two leaders will discuss relations between the United States and Russia and a range of national security issues," the White House statement said.

CBS News' Mark Knoller reports that this will be the latest in a series of presidential visits to Helsinki for diplomatic talks with their Russian counterparts. Helsinki was the backdrop for President Gerald Ford's meeting with Soviet General Secretary Brezhnev in 1975, President George H.W. Bush's meeting with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 and President Bill Clinton's summit with President Boris Yeltsin in 1997.

Knoller adds that the Helsinki summit will be Mr. Trump's 3rd set of meetings with Putin. They met previously at the G20 in Hamburg in July 2017 and at the APEC Summit in Da Nang, in November 2017.

National Security Adviser John Bolton met in Moscow on Wednesday with the Russian delegation to begin groundwork for the meeting, which a Putin aide confirmed would take place mid-day and last "several hours."

In addition to a one-on-one meeting, there may also be a protocol event, a working breakfast and joint news conference, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said after meetings between Bolton and Russian officials.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Bolton attempted to dispel concerns over the president meeting with Putin, who is at the heart of ongoing probes into the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russian interference in the 2016 election.

"I don't think it's unusual for President Trump and President Putin to meet," Bolton told reporters in Moscow. He added, "President Trump believes so strongly that it was time to have this kind of meeting and as you can see, President Putin agreed."

The Kremlin, meanwhile, continues to claim that the Russian government played no role in the election. "It was stated clearly by our side that the Russian state hasn't interfered with the U.S. domestic politics, moreover hasn't interfered in the 2016 election," Ushakov said. On Thursday before news of the summit's location, Mr. Trump backed up that claim, tweeting that Russia was not involved.

Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election! Where is the DNC Server, and why didn’t Shady James Comey and the now disgraced FBI agents take and closely examine it? Why isn’t Hillary/Russia being looked at? So many questions, so much corruption! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2018

The president's claim comes amid numerous accounts by U.S. intelligence officials over the past year that while there's no clear evidence they changed the outcome, Russia had a hand in interfering in the election process by sowing national discord in the United States during the lead-up to the election.

After the meeting, Putin and Mr. Trump may adopt a joint statement on international security issues, including "improving bilateral relations, both in terms of joint actions in the international arena and in terms of ensuring international stability and security," Ushakov said.

Bolton however said that he didn't expect "specific outcomes or decisions" from the meeting.

This is a developing story. </s> MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin says he is ready to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump if Finland hosts an Arctic summit.

Putin and Finland's president, Sauli Niinisto, both expressed openness for such a meeting when they spoke at an Arctic forum in the Russian city of Arkhangelsk Thursday.

Asked by a moderator if Finland was willing to host a summit of Arctic nations' leaders that for the first time brings together Putin and Trump, Niinisto said that it would be honored to do so.

Putin answered in kind, saying he would be glad to take part in it if such a meeting is held.

Finland is set to take the rotating leadership in the Arctic Council in May. </s> MOSCOW President Donald Trump plans to meet President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16 for one-on-one talks, the White House said Thursday, a politically sensitive meeting that will take place while the special counsel continues to investigate the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia.

It will be the first formal summit meeting for Trump and Putin, who have spoken together twice on the sidelines of annual gatherings of world leaders, and it also comes at a particularly delicate moment, with midterm elections looming in the United States.

"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.

The Helsinki talks, which will come on the heels of a NATO summit meeting in Brussels on July 11 and 12, could exacerbate U.S. relations with European allies even as it eases tensions with Russia.

Trump this week sent his national security adviser, John R. Bolton, to Moscow, where he met on Wednesday with Putin.

Afterward, an aide to Putin, Yuri Ushakov, reiterated Moscow's denial of trying to influence the United States presidential election in 2016, comments that Trump cited on Thursday in a Twitter post before the announcement of the meeting with Putin.

"Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!" Trump wrote.

The potential for such a high-level meeting has concerned some American allies in Europe, particularly because of recent tensions between the Trump administration and traditional American allies including Canada, France and Germany.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Trump said that it was important to get along with Russia and with other countries.

But a meeting with Putin, with the goal of improving relationships between the United States and Russia, has always appeared to be a priority for Trump. </s> President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will meet next month in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, Fox News reported Thursday.

The report, which could not be immediately verified by USA TODAY, came a day after officials in both countries said the leaders will meet in a "third country," perhaps Finland or Austria.

The Trump-Putin summit would be tacked onto Trump's pre-scheduled trip to Europe on July 10-14, officials said, though specific details have yet to be nailed down.

"I can say that we have reached an agreement to hold a summit, we have even agreed on the time and the place of the meeting, and we will announce this obviously with our American colleagues tomorrow," Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday.

While Ushakov would not identify the "third country" in which the meeting will be held, Trump told reporters at the White House that Helsinki and Vienna, Austria, are finalists.

The Kremlin made the announcement Wednesday as National Security Adviser John Bolton visited Moscow to work out the details of a summit designed to discuss the disputes between the two countries.

“Both President Trump and President Putin think they may be able to find constructive solutions," Bolton told reporters. "I’d like to hear someone say that’s a bad idea."

In addition to planning the Trump summit, Putin and Bolton discussed Russian involvement in Ukraine, the Syria civil war and efforts to denuclearize North Korea, all of which are expected to be subjects at the summit, officials said.

The Russian leader also denied allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election that elected Trump, the Kremlin said.

Trump has denied any collusion with Russians during his 2016 campaign, and Bolton echoed that denial. "People have said or implied over time that a meeting between President Trump and President Putin would somehow prove some nexus between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, which is complete nonsense," he said. </s> President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met and shook hands Monday to kick off a long-anticipated summit on neutral ground in Finland in a final -- and crucial -- stop on the president's chaotic weeklong diplomatic tour through Europe.The two leaders walked into a room in the Presidential Palace in Helsinki quietly. Against the backdrop of six American and Russian flags, the silence was broken when Putin gave brief remarks -- and President Trump followed by congratulating his counterpart on hosting the World Cup."I'd like to congratulate you on a really great World Cup, one of the best ever," Trump said. "And for also your team doing so well."It was beautifully done," he added, saying he watched the finals.Trump said they'll be talking about trade, military and China.He said among the major topics will be repairing the deteriorating relationship between the two countries."We've been not getting along for the past years," Trump said. "We'll have an extraordinary relationship."And I really think the world wants to see us and get along," the U.S. president added. "We are the two great nuclear powers. It's not a good thing, its a bad thing. So we'll be talking about that among other things."Trump did not make any mention of the election meddling, Syria, or the annexation of Crimea in his brief remarks.Putin, who is known to keep world leaders waiting, arrived almost 30 minutes late in Helsinki for the summit with Trump. In his remarks, he said the time had come for bilateral relations and "various hotspots in the world.""There are enough of them that we have paid attention to them," he said."I am glad to meet with you on the hospitable soil of Finland," Putin added.After both leaders spoke, they briefly shook hands.Now, they'll have a 90-minute, bilateral meeting with advisors, followed by a press conference.The meeting happened after a week of worldwide anxious anticipation spanning from the U.S. to Europe to Russia.Just hours before they, Trump tweeted, "Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!"Trump has said he hopes to improve relations between the United States and Russia, but has placed blame for the deteriorated relationship on his predecessor, President Barack Obama, rather than Russian aggression and meddling.When asked about his message to Putin during a breakfast at the Finnish president's residence, Mntyniemi, with the president of Finland, Sauli Niinist, and the first lady of Finland, Jenni Haukio, Trump simply replied, "we'll do just fine, thank you."The stakes are high for the summit. Just days before Trump arrived in Helsinki, special counsel Robert Mueller issued indictments on 12 Russian spies for their interference in the 2016 election.News of action by Mueller added additional pressure on the president to address election meddling and hold Putin accountable for Russian aggression. Monday's meeting loomed large over each leg of the president's tour.At NATO, allied leaders condemned Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, and in Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May said at a press conference with Trump she welcomes "the strong response from the U.S. on the poisonings in Salisbury."Trump said election interference, along with Syria, Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea, and meddling will be among the topics on the table Monday."I know you'll ask will we be talking about meddling. And I will absolutely bring that up. I don't think you'll have any, 'Gee, I did it. I did it. You got me.' There won't be a Perry Mason here, I don't think. But you never know what happens, right? But I will absolutely firmly ask the question," Trump said at Chequers, May's residence, on Friday.Still, Kremlin press secretary Dmitri Peskov told reporters ahead of the summit that should Trump bring up interference in the U.S. election, he will "reiterate that Russia did not and could not bear any relation to the matter on which such speculations are centered."Over the weekend, Trump and his White House advisers tried to downplay the impact of the summit. For the White House, the meeting isn't so much about resolving problems but building a diplomatic bridge between two countries that have not seen worse relations since the Cold War.Trump himself said he did not have "high expectations" for their talks, and White House National Security Adviser John Bolton, who took the lead on orchestrating the summit by traveling to Moscow to meet with Putin, said the United States should not expect any deliverables or written agreements, like the joint agreement made by Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un in Singapore in June."We have asked and the Russians have agreed that it will be basically unstructured. We're not looking for concrete deliverables here," Bolton said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "I think it's very important that the president has a direct one-on-one conversation with President Putin. That's how this is going to start."U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman even said it's not a "summit" but a "meeting" on NBC's "Meet the Press.""Listen, and it isn't a summit. I've heard it called a summit. This is a meeting. In fact, it's the first meeting between the two presidents. They've had some pull-asides, one at the G20 in Hamburg and the other at the APEC Ministerial in Da Nang, Vietnam," Huntsman said. "But this is really the first time for both presidents to actually sit across the table and have a conversation. And I hope it's a detailed conversation about where we might be able to find some overlapping and shared interests. This has not happened before."Trump went on to call it a summit later in a tweet.While allied NATO leaders like May were encouraging of Trump's meeting with Putin, lawmakers at home expressed skepticism ahead of the talks in Finland and even told Trump to cancel their meeting if Trump could not guarantee a hard-line response to election meddling."President Trump must be willing to confront Putin from a position of strength and demonstrate that there will be a serious price to pay for his ongoing aggression towards the United States and democracies around the world," Republican Sen. John McCain said in a statement. "If President Trump is not prepared to hold Putin accountable, the summit in Helsinki should not move forward."Concern has grown the president will make concessions with Russia, or come out with nothing much to show for the meeting except handshakes, smiles and photos, particularly as aides have said the president hasn't been keen on studying up ahead of the summit, according to ABC News sources."Will I be prepared? I'm totally prepared. I have been preparing for this stuff my whole life," Trump said at a rally in Montana before he left for Europe.Trump spent the weekend before the summit at Trump Turnberry resort on the coast of Scotland meeting with advisers, tweeting and playing golf.Early Monday and hours before the meeting, protests broke out in Helsinki calling for human rights and democracy.It's the first official summit between the presidents of the United States and Russia since 1997 when Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin produced a breakthrough agreement on arms control in Helsinki.Other issues of world importance to be discussed include the U.S.-Russia nuclear arms race, and Russia's alleged violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev.Another big topic is expected to be the involvement of the U.S. and Russia in the ongoing civil war in Syria.The United States has had a military presence in Syria since early 2016 to train and advise Kurdish and Arab rebel forces fighting ISIS in northern and eastern parts of the country. Russia, a longtime ally of Syria, has backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, despite accusations from the U.S. and others that the dictator has repeatedly used chemical weapons on his own people.In April, U.S., Britain, and France launched a series of strikes on three locations identified as critical to Syria's production of chemical weapons, including a scientific research center in Damascus, and a production facility and storage facility in Homs. Russia denounced the airstrikes, warning of "consequences."Trump was evasive during a press conference last week when asked if he and Putin will also discuss sanctions approved by Congress against Russia for its 2014 forcible annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine."Long before I got here, President [Barack] Obama allowed that to happen. That was on his watch, not on my watch," Trump said at a press conference at the end of the NATO summit in Brussel's last week."What will happen with Crimea from this point on, that I can't tell you, but I'm not happy about Crimea," he said of the subject that has fueled the icy relationship between the White House and Moscow.During a meeting last week, Trump heard complaints from May about the attempted murders in March of a former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, who were both attacked with the Russian-made nerve agent Novichok in southern England."The government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal," May said in an address to the British House of Commons.Last month, two other people were sickened by the same nerve agent in a town near where the Skripals were exposed. A woman, Dawn Sturgess, 44, died Sunday in a hospital; Charlie Rowley, 45, who was with Sturgess when they were exposed to Novichok, was initially in critical condition but has since regained consciousness.Trump, however, is expected to keep U.S. interests at the forefront of the summit agenda, Bolton said."I think the president is going into this meeting determined to advance the national interest of the United States," Bolton said. "That's what he was elected to do. </s> Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he would be ready to meet with US President Donald Trump at the upcoming summit of Arctic countries in Finland, if the talks are properly prepared.

“I believe Finland suits this purpose well, and Helsinki is a very convenient platform to organize an event like this,” Putin said, when asked if he thought a meeting between him and Trump was possible in Finland.

However, he added that the event should be well prepared “by both sides.”

“If this happens, we – and I personally – would be glad to take part in such an event. If not, the meeting [with Trump] could take place in the framework of the G20 summit [set to take place in July],” Putin concluded.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said earlier that his country would “certainly be very happy to have the opportunity to hold such a summit.”

The summit is set to take place at Finlandia Hall in Helsinki on September 18-20, 2017, according to the event’s official website.

Russia considers the US a great power, and would like to get its relationship with Washington back on track, and claims alleging anything else are lies and fiction, Putin said.

The Russian president added that, while relations between Moscow and Washington are currently “at zero level,” he counts on the situation improving someday – and the sooner the better.

The anti-Russian card is being played by various political forces in the US to reinforce the positions of certain politicians, Putin added, slamming as nonsense claims that the Russian ambassador to the US had held “spy” meetings with officials connected to Trump.

Putin also slammed the way the Russian ambassador is being treated in the US. The diplomat’s contacts have been limited and any meetings he has are regarded as a spy activities, according to the Russian president.

Putin warned that the attempt of some US political forces to bring US-Russian relations to the point of “Caribbean crisis” [October missile crisis] is a huge mistake.

The first high-profile Russia-US meeting was held in mid-February, when US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Bonn, although journalists were asked to leave when the US’ top diplomat began speaking.
United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Helsinki.