Trump-Putin Summit: Presidents to meet on July 16 in Helsinki

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Europe

02:31

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be meeting for talks on July 16th in Finland's Helsinki. A wide-range of issues will be on the agenda. But the elephant in the room could be Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential race. CGTN White House correspondent Nathan King reports.

Russia is hosting the football World Cup, but it's President Vladimir Putin who will travel to Helsinki next month for a match-up over 18 months in the making his first one-on-one summit with US President Donald Trump.

"If we could all get along it is going to be great. The world has to start getting along. Thank you."

Despite Trump's personal affinity for Putin, US-Russia relations are at a post-Cold War low. The US has imposed sanctions for its absorption of Crimea, and supplying arms to Ukraine where Russia supports separatists in the east. The US has also boosted its military presence on Russia's border in Eastern Europe and is on the opposite side in the Syrian conflict from Moscow.

No wonder Moscow is downplaying expectations in Helsinki.

MARIA ZAKHAROVA RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY "I recommend everyone to refrain from using the words 'breakthrough meetings' and so on. I suggest a pragmatic and realistic attitude towards these meetings. Certainly Russian-American relations have been ready for a number of meetings on various levels for a long time because the bilateral agenda has been demanding it."

The timing of the summit will worry US allies - it will follow hot on the heels of a NATO summit and a long delayed visit to the United Kingdom.

Trump has praised the leadership of Vladimir Putin while criticizing NATO allies and has preferred to take Putin's word over multiple assessments from US intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

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

There is also an ongoing investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian efforts to influence the election and Trump's ties to Russian business - all having the potential to overshadow the Helsinki meeting.

NATHAN KING WHITE HOUSE "Other US administrations have tried to hit the reset button with Russia before. Most noticeably Donald Trump's predecessor Barack Obama. Trump must be betting on his personal brand of diplomacy and his wanting of a better relationship with Vladimir Putin to make it different this time. NKI, CGTN at the White House."