MOSCOW (Reuters) - The United States has confirmed that a meeting in Argentina between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin would go ahead on Saturday at a G20 summit, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

The meeting was thrown into doubt on Tuesday when Trump said he might cancel it after Russia seized three Ukrainian naval vessels at the weekend. </s> President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin shake hands during the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany in this still image taken from video, July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Steffen Kugler/Courtesy of Bundesregierung/Handout via REUTERS </s> HAMBURG (Reuters) - Leaders from the world’s leading economies broke with U.S. President Donald Trump on climate policy at a G20 summit on Saturday, in a rare public admission of disagreement and blow to multilateral cooperation.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, keen to show off her skills as a mediator two months before a German election, achieved her primary goal at the meeting in Hamburg, convincing her fellow leaders to support a single communique with pledges on trade, finance, energy and Africa.

But the divide between Trump, elected on a pledge to put “America First”, and the 19 other members of the club, including countries as diverse as Japan, Saudi Arabia and Argentina, was stark.

Last month Trump announced he was pulling the United States out of a landmark international climate accord clinched two years ago in Paris.

“In the end, the negotiations on climate reflect dissent – all against the United States of America,” Merkel told reporters at the end of the meeting.

“And the fact that negotiations on trade were extraordinarily difficult is due to specific positions that the United States has taken.”

The summit, marred by violent protests that left the streets of Hamburg littered with burning cars and broken shop windows, brought together a volatile mix of leaders at a time of major change in the global geo-political landscape.

Trump’s shift to a more unilateral, transactional diplomacy has left a void in global leadership, unsettling traditional allies in Europe and opening the door to rising powers like China to assume a bigger role.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing dominated the run-up to the meeting, with the Trump administration ratcheting up pressure on President Xi Jinping to rein in North Korea and threatening punitive trade measures on steel.

TRUMP-PUTIN

Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in Hamburg, a hotly anticipated encounter after the former real estate mogul promised a rapprochement with Moscow during his campaign, only to be thwarted by accusations of Russian meddling in the vote and investigations into the Russia ties of Trump associates.

Putin said at the conclusion of the summit on Saturday that Trump had quizzed him on the alleged meddling in a meeting that lasted over two hours but seemed to have been satisfied with the Kremlin leader’s denials of interference.

Trump had accused Russia of destabilizing behavior in Ukraine and Syria before the summit. But in Hamburg he struck a conciliatory tone, describing it as an honor to meet Putin and signaling, through Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, that he preferred to focus on future ties and not dwell on the past.

“It was an extraordinarily important meeting,” Tillerson said, describing a “very clear positive chemistry” between Trump and the former KGB agent.

In the final communique, the 19 other leaders took note of the U.S. decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord and declared it “irreversible”.

For its part, the United States injected a contentious line saying that it would “endeavor to work closely with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently.”

Delegates attend the official dinner at the Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall during the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Kay Nietfeld

French President Emmanuel Macron led a push to soften the U.S. language.

“There is a clear consensus absent the United States,” said Thomas Bernes, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. “But that is a problem. Without the largest economy in the world how far can you go?”

Jennifer Morgan, executive director at Greenpeace, said the G19 had “held the line” against Trump’s “backward decision” to withdraw from Paris.

On trade, another sticking point, the leaders agreed they would “fight protectionism including all unfair trade practices and recognize the role of legitimate trade defense instruments in this regard.”

The leaders also pledged to work together to foster economic development in Africa, a priority project for Merkel.

VIOLENT PROTESTS

Merkel chose to host the summit in Hamburg, the port city where she was born, to send a signal about Germany’s openness to the world, including its tolerance of peaceful protests.

It was held only a few hundred meters from one of Germany’s most potent symbols of left-wing resistance, a former theater called the “Rote Flora” which was taken over by anti-capitalist squatters nearly three decades ago.

Over the three days of the summit, radicals looted shops, torched cars and lorries. More than 200 police were injured and some 143 people have been arrested and 122 taken into custody.

Slideshow (15 Images)

Some of the worst damage was done as Merkel hosted other leaders at for a concert and lavish dinner at the Elbphilharmonie, a modernist glass concert hall overlooking the Elbe River.

Merkel met police and security force after the summit to thank them, and condemned the “unbridled brutality” of some of the protestors, but she was forced to answer tough questions about hosting the summit in Hamburg during her closing press conference. </s> Diplomats from the Group of 20 countries were haggling hard over a final summit statement Friday, with deep divisions over what language to use on the Paris climate accord and the WTO, say two European officials involved in the discussions.

Facing the prospect of a no-statement summit, European delegations were trying to create a common front and may come out with their own separate declaration if they can't get the US or others on board. European leaders were meeting in the morning at the summit venue in the Argentine capital to stake out common positions on trade, climate and the killing of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

France is seeking to build coalitions on certain issues or "ad hoc partnerships" to try to salvage the spirit of the G20 even if all countries can't agree, according to a French official.

The officials weren't authorised to be named speaking about the closed-door discussions and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The G20 was supposed to focus on issues like development, infrastructure and investment, but as the gathering officially kicked off, those themes seem like afterthoughts, overshadowed by contentious matters from the US-China trade dispute to the conflict over Ukraine.

European Council President Donald Tusk urged G20 leaders to discuss "trade wars, the tragic situation in Syria and Yemen, and Russian aggression in Ukraine". He said the European Union is expected to extend sanctions on Moscow over its "totally unacceptable" seizure of Ukrainian ships and their crews near Crimea.

"Europe is united in its support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Tusk said, calling the standoff "a cause of great concern".

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who arrived in Buenos Aires on Friday morning, is among the leaders involved. Russia and Ukraine have traded blame over the ship incident.

Also expected to loom large amid dozens of bilateral meetings in Buenos Aires: the gruesome slaying of Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate and how the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), who is alleged to have ordered the killing, is received by world leaders.

Saudi Arabia has denied that MBS played a role, but some leaders may be cool toward him to avoid seeming to legitimise a man who US intelligence agencies concluded ordered the killing. US President Donald Trump's administration has made clear it does not want to torpedo the longstanding US relationship with Riyadh, however.

It is the prince's first significant appearance overseas since the killing. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been sharply critical of Saudi Arabia over the incident, is also in attendance.

Leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico met in the morning to sign a trade deal replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement that was struck following months of tough negotiations that analysts say left a bitter taste among the partners.

Trump called the pact known the USMCA a "model agreement that changes the trade landscape forever".

It must still be ratified by lawmakers in all three countries, and passage in the US could face a tough road in the House of Representatives after Democrats won a majority in November midterm elections.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose six-year term ends Saturday, said the deal modernises the trade framework, highlights a need for economic integration in North America and protects labour rights and the environment.

Trade agreements should "move along with the economy", Pena Nieto said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Trump to remove tariffs on steel and aluminium, saying they remain a major economic obstacle.

Trump met in the morning with summit host and Argentine President Mauricio Macri at the presidential palace known as the Casa Rosada, or Pink House. Posing for photos in a gilded salon, Trump spoke about their longtime personal relationship and said they would discuss trade, military purchases and other issues.

An expected high-profile bilateral meeting between Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin planned for Saturday was abruptly cancelled by Trump the previous day in a tweet citing Russia's seizure of Ukrainian vessels over the weekend. Russian news agencies quoted Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying the cancellation means Putin will have more time for "useful meetings".

Trump was still scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but analysts were not optimistic about prospects for a major breakthrough on the two countries' trade disputes a month before US tariffs on Chinese goods are set to ramp up.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was supposed to get in to Buenos Aires early Friday, but her arrival was delayed when her plane suffered a technical problem and returned to Germany on Thursday night. Merkel's office said Friday that she and a small delegation, including the finance minister, took a different government plane to Madrid and then boarded a commercial flight to Buenos Aires.

The British Embassy in Argentina said Prime Minister Theresa May's visit would be the first by a UK prime minister to Argentina's capital. The only other prime minister to visit the country was Tony Blair, who went to Puerto Iguazu in 2001. The two countries have long been at odds over the Falkland Islands.

Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie said the recent establishment of more flights to the disputed islands was a positive development.

Regarding May's visit, he said: "Macri has reiterated at various moments that dialogue must be maintained. The issue of sovereignty is always on the table."

"We are not withdrawing our historic claim," he added. "The focus of this opportunity is in the reestablishment of trust." </s> President Donald Trump shakes with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Friday, June 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

OSAKA, Japan (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump’s trip to Asia (all times local):

President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping are meeting Saturday in Osaka, Japan, as the trade war between two economic titans faces a critical junction.

Both the U.S. and China are signaling a desire to de-escalate the year-long conflict, yet seem unwilling to compromise.

The meeting will take place on the sidelines of the international Group of 20 summit.

Trump is also meeting Saturday with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammad Bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Democrats are criticizing an off-handed comment President Donald Trump made about election meddling during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a summit in Japan.

After a reporter asked Trump if he was going to warn Russia not to meddle in the U.S. election, Trump turned to Putin and jokingly said: “Don’t meddle in the election.”

The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, says the joke is on America and Putin is the only one laughing. Schumer says Trump is giving Russia a green light to interfere again in 2020.

The Kremlin says President Vladimir Putin has invited President Donald Trump to visit Russia next year.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday that the Russian leader wants Trump to attend festivities marking the 75th anniversary of the World War II victory.

Peskov says Trump reacted “positively” to the invitation at the two leaders’ meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 nations’ summit in Osaka. Peskov says a formal invitation would be sent shortly.

The Kremlin spokesman says that during their meeting, Trump and Putin discussed ways to improve economic times, arms control, China, Syria and Turkey.

President Donald Trump is joking with Russian President Vladimir Putin about interfering in U.S. elections.

After a reporter at an international summit in Japan asked Trump if he was going to warn Russia not to meddle in the U.S. election, Trump turned to Putin and jokingly said: “Don’t meddle in the election.”

The off-handed comment came during the two leaders’ first meeting since special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that Russia extensively interfered with the 2016 campaign.

President Donald Trump has promised Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro that he will visit the South American country.

Trump said Friday that Brazil has many of the world’s assets and he looks forward to the trip. He didn’t say when it would be.

Bolsonaro, dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics” after he emulated Trump to win election last year, told Trump he supports his re-election. The leaders met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan.

Trump answered several questions about his meeting Saturday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and said he thinks it will be productive. The U.S. and China are locked in a trade war.

Trump says he hasn’t promised to hold off on new tariffs on Chinese goods.

White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump will speak about women’s economic empowerment at a special event during the Group of 20 summit in Japan.

The White House says President Donald Trump’s daughter plans to speak Saturday at an event being held a summit session on women’s participation in the workforce. She was invited by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, host of the summit in Osaka, and will appear with Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, with whom she has worked closely on the issue.

President Trump is also expected to attend.

Ivanka Trump will discuss how the Trump administrations recently launched initiative on Women’s Global Development and Prosperity will marshal government and private support to empower women economically around the world.

President Donald Trump says he’ll discuss trade and disarmament issues with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two are meeting Friday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan. It’s their first meeting since a federal investigation in the United States documented extensive evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It’s also their first time face-to-face since a Helsinki summit last July in which Trump refused to side with U.S. intelligence agencies over his Russian counterpart.

Putin has denied meddling in the election.

Trump jokingly said to Putin: “Don’t meddle in the election,” after a reporter asked if he will deliver that warning to Putin about the 2020 U.S. election.

President Donald Trump says German Chancellor Angela Merkel is a “fantastic person” and he’s “glad to have her as a friend.”

Trump commented Friday as he and Merkel met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan. Merkel said last year that she won’t seek a fifth term as chancellor and Trump has complained outside of her presence that Germany is taking advantage of the U.S. on support for NATO.

The president says he and Merkel “have many things to talk about” but he didn’t indicate whether he’d raise the NATO issue.

Merkel said she wants to discuss Iran, counterterrorism and West Africa.

President Donald Trump says he and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have become “great friends” and the two countries “have never been closer.”

The two heads of state met Friday in Osaka, Japan, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit.

The president has complained about trade with India and says it will be among the issues they discuss. Modi said he wants to discuss Iran, 5G communications networks, bilateral relations and defense relations. The prime minister also thanked Trump for expressing his “love toward India” in a letter recently delivered by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Trump and Modi met separately following a three-way meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

President Donald Trump is meeting jointly with the leaders of India and Japan.

The three leaders did a group fist bump as they posed for a photo Friday’s meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan.

Trump says it’s a “great honor” to be at the meeting and congratulated Modi on his recent re-election.

Despite his recent complaints about India and Japan, Trump forecast a “positive” discussion with his counterparts.

Abe says India, the U.S., and Japan are the “foundation of the peace and prosperity in the region.”

President Donald Trump is opening his participation in the Group of 20 summit by meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the summit host.

Trump recalled Friday that he’d been in Japan last month, joking that “we just left Japan and now I’m back.”

He recalled presenting an award to the winner of a sumo wrestling champion during the May visit and claimed “everybody’s talking about it all over the world.”

Trump says he and Abe will discuss trade, military and other issues during their meeting on the sidelines of the summit, which is being held in Osaka, Japan.

President Donald Trump is under pressure to take a firm stand against election interference Friday when he holds his first meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin since the special counsel found extensive evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

U.S. officials are on high alert for more interference next year.

Trump said in advance he expected a “very good conversation” with Putin but told reporters that “what I say to him is none of your business.”

His aides have grown worried that Trump could use the meeting to once again attack Robert Mueller’s probe on the world stage, particularly since the special counsel now has a date to testify before Congress next month. </s> BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The Latest on President Donald Trump at the Group of 20 summit (all times local):

President Donald Trump is meeting Argentine President Mauricio Macri as he kicks off two days of diplomacy at the G-20 meeting.

The leaders greeted each other warmly Friday as the annual meeting of leaders from rich and developing nations opened in Buenos Aires. Trump spoke about his longtime personal friendship with Macri and said they would discuss trade, military purchases and other issues.

Macri is hosting his counterparts as he struggles with a raft of domestic issues, including trying to halt economic turmoil that has caused the steep depreciation of the Argentine peso.

Trump and Macri enjoy a personal relationship dating back to their days as businessman.

Macri visited the White House soon after Trump took office in 2017.

President Donald Trump is blasting the investigation in which his former lawyer pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Moscow real estate deal he pursued for Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Michael Cohen says he lied to be consistent with Trump's "political messaging." Trump says Cohen is lying now.

In a tweet Friday from Argentina, Trump recalled "happily living" his life as a developer before running for president after seeing the "Country going in the wrong direction."

Trump says "Against all odds" he decided to run for president and continue to run his business, which he calls "very legal & very cool." He says he "talked about it on the campaign trail."

Trump tweets he "Lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in Russia. Put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn't do the project. Witch Hunt!"

President Trump kicks off two days of diplomacy at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina on Friday after his abrupt decision to cancel a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin overshadowed the proceedings before they even started.

Trump barreled into the two-day meeting by announcing via Twitter that he was canceling on Putin over Russia's seizure of Ukrainian vessels. His agenda Friday is expected to include meetings with world leaders, the signing of a revamped trade deal with Canada and Mexico, as well as a number of group activities for the gathering of rich and developing nations.

Coming into this G-20, Trump faces a series of diplomatic challenges — most notably whether he can strike an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) to ease trade tensions.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> Leaders of the Group of Seven are arriving for a working meeting focused on looming threats to the global economy.

U.S. President Donald Trump and the leaders of the other G-7 countries, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, Germany, Canada as well as the European Union were expected to discuss the spread of trade disputes, notably the U.S. trade war with China.

Sunday's gathering in the French seaside resort of Biarritz comes on the heels of the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hoping for a quick trade accord with the United States as Britain's exit from the European Union approaches. </s> The world’s principal forum of global leaders risks marking its 10th anniversary with an identity crisis.

The debut Group of 20 leaders’ summit was convened in 2008 to develop an response to the financial crisis ripping through markets. Leaders attending the latest edition in Buenos Aires on Friday and Saturday face shared threats from trade disputes to migration and climate change—but are so lacking in common purpose that a blowup looks more likely than a collective response.

President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda is one obvious culprit for the breakdown in global solidarity, but far from the only one. Even as some leaders try to put on a show of unity, others are increasingly going it alone, whether Vladimir Putin’s power play in Ukraine, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s business-as-usual approach after the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi, or even Theresa May’s dogged pursuit of

Given the global challenges, it’s in many ways a perfect time for a summit. But the outlook for substantial breakthrough seems slim: Trump blew apart the G-7 earlier this year and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit ended in disarray this month without a joint statement for the first time. Russia’s attack on Ukrainian warships this week further diminishes the likelihood the G-20 will showcase multilateralism over nationalist isolationism.

The paradox is there may be little alternative to such summits, said John Kirton, who leads the G-20 research group at the University of Toronto. “If you believe the demand for global governance is great and growing, the only supplier left standing is the G-20,” said Kirton. “When leaders get together, big things can happen.”

And yet at this week’s summit, big things are more likely to be defined on the sidelines. Trump’s long-awaited meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping will be parsed for signs of a cease-fire in their simmering trade war. It will at best “produce some signs from the top that an agreement could possibly be reached—but very little on the details,” said Mary Lovely, an economics professor at Syracuse University who specializes in trade. But the U.S. “seems to have done a lot more work to prepare for a trade war than a trade truce.”

After dodging bilateral talks this month during World War I commemorations in Paris, Trump is due to meet with Putin in an encounter that may show whether the U.S. leader still wants Crimea to be recognized as Russian territory. The U.S. is also set to sign a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico at the meeting, even as Trump threatens to permanently close the U.S.-Mexico border.

The participating countries may yet come out the other end of the summit with a joint statement, but even if they do it will be watered down to accommodate the U.S. and others. It might not, for instance, even mention multilateralism. And then there’s the defiant Saudi Crown Prince; if he travels to Argentina, then all eyes will be on who—apart from Trump and potentially Putin—will shake his hand, let alone consider him a partner on challenges.

“My guess is a lot of the news will be made not by the communique that comes out, but by the bilaterals that are held—or not held,” said Ted Truman, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for Economics. “It’s not going to produce a breakthrough in international cooperation, if I can put it that way, because the people are not ready for a breakthrough in international cooperation.”

Trade, and Trump, will define much of the meeting. The same summit a year ago ended with a joint statement peppered with apparent Trump appeasement lines, such as condemning “unfair trade practices,” recognizing “the role of legitimate trade defense instruments” and noting the U.S. decision to quit the Paris climate accord. The final communique, in some sections, was less a unified joint statement than a laundry list of impasses.

The G-20 was established in 1999 as a forum for finance chiefs and central bankers from economies representing some two-thirds of the world’s population and 85 percent of global output. It was elevated to leaders’ level in 2008 in the depths of the financial crisis: the first summit was held in Washington two months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

As leaders head to Argentina, the G-20 lacks the urgency it had at its outset.

“But there’s a new crisis brewing, which is trade,” said Ronaldo Costa Filho, undersecretary general for Economic and Financial Affairs at Brazil’s foreign ministry, who is the country’s sherpa, or leader’s envoy at the summit. Even so, “joint consensus recommendations” are not yet within reach, he said.

G-7 leaders meeting in Canada in June did manage to reach a common statement, only for Trump to disavow it hours later with a tweet from Air Force One, while labeling host Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “dishonest & weak.”

Five months on, the formal G-20 agenda as set by host Argentina focuses on infrastructure, jobs of the future and food security. The fight over steel and aluminum tariffs, and the threat of U.S. tariffs on auto imports, will also dominate sideline discussions, as will the future of the World Trade Organization, something of a sibling entity for the G-20. Talks began last month on how to reform it in a way both China and the U.S. would agree to.

The Khashoggi murder looms large. The summit will include Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has shared recordings related to Khashoggi’s murder with allies; Germany’s Angela Merkel, who has suspended Saudi arms exports; and Trudeau, who’s been locked in a diplomatic fight with the kingdom since before Khashoggi’s death. Trump has effectively deflected any Saudi role in the killing.

At the center of the diplomacy is Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri, who has sought to hold the summit together in something of a bid to re-enter the upper tier of world powers. But he’s vying to join a club at risk of collapse; take Brazil and Mexico, which will be represented by lame-duck leaders and not the incoming populists who’ve won power.

It will be up to Macri and the liberal order as represented by Trudeau, Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron—the latter two not without their domestic difficulties—to try to save the G-20’s multilateral mission from its growing isolationist tendencies, according to Kirton. “We have two agendas warring withing the bosom of a single summit,” he said. </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.
Leaders from the Group of Twenty come together at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, including United States President Donald Trump who is set to meet with President of Russia Vladimir Putin.