The summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin will take place in Helsinki on 16 July. This was reported by the BBC and confirmed by the Kremlin and the White House. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has welcomed the talks. Trump will arrive in Helsinki after the NATO summit in Brussels and a brief stopover in Britain for talks with Prime Minister Theresa May.
US National Security Adviser John Bolton, who played an important role in setting up the summit, indicated that the presidents will discuss matters of mutual importance, and will pave the way for improving the US-Russia bilateral relationship and bring in global stability.
After his meeting with Bolton, President Putin agreed that there are hopes for improving relations that had deteriorated in recent times. He went on to add that the poor state of relations could be attributed to political confrontation in the United States.
Matters Trump might discuss at the summit
According to Independent UK, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had two brief meetings on the sidelines of international summits last year, and the one in Helsinki will be the first full-fledged summit between them. Helsinki had hosted an earlier summit in 1990 between George H W Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev to discuss the crisis in the Gulf ahead of Operation Desert Storm. Summits of this nature can help to bridge communication gaps.
It is difficult to predict the subjects Donald Trump might choose to discuss with his Russian counterpart. In the opinion of US National Security Adviser John Bolton, a few issues that could come up at the summit are the involvement of Russia in Ukraine and Syria and the annexation of Crimea.
The United States had imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and associated activities in support of a pro-Russian uprising in the region.
A further set of sanctions were slapped because of its alleged interference in U.S. elections. The relation between Russia and some other countries have been far from cordial because of sanctions and diplomatic expulsions.
The summit could resolve issues
The United States and Russia are super-powers and US President Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin have a great say in ensuring global stability.
At times there are differences that need to be resolved. A summit provides the leaders an opportunity to engage in face-to-face discussions and arrive at a solution instead of allowing the situation to go out of control. It is hoped that the summit will help to resolve long pending issues.
