The Trump-Putin summit will take place in Helsinki on July 16th

By Doina Chiacu and Andrew Osborn

WASHINGTON / MOSCOW (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin Hold First Summit on July 16 in Helsinki, a place famous for its Cold War diplomacy, with worried American allies in Europe and Russian skeptics.

The Kremlin and the White House simultaneously announced the location and date of the summit a day later "The two leaders will discuss relations between the United States and Russia and a series of national security problems" said the White House in a statement. published by the Kremlin

Trump will meet Putin after attending the NATO leaders' summit on July 11 and 12 and visiting Britain. The date of the summit will give Putin the opportunity to attend the closing ceremony of the Football World Cup on July 15th.

The two leaders have already met twice on the sidelines of international meetings and have spoken at least eight times over the phone. They also made positive comments from time to time with Putin praising Trump's management of the economy.

Their summit could irritate American allies however who want to isolate Putin, like Britain, or countries like Ukraine who are worried about what they see Trump's too friendly attitude towards the Russian leader

He is also likely to fall short of critics who question Trump's commitment to the NATO alliance and who have been worried about his frictions with Canada and l & # 39; Germany.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg downplayed worries over the summit on Monday, saying it was in line with the alliance's own policies that advocated dialogue with Moscow.

Others were less optimistic. a discomfort about this meeting, just as there is a malaise about Trump, "said a top NATO diplomat, who declined to be identified because of the subject's sensitivity.

"What is it? To say, what is his preparation, is he aware of symbolism? The containment of Russia by the United States goes further than what Europe would like … but if Trump then creates a friendship with Putin, that could leave us more in the dark of American policy, "added the diplomat

There is probably some uneasiness in Ukraine, which wants Russia to make the Crimea region annexed and pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country. 39, Ukraine make him control of a huge territory.

The Ukrainian presidential administration has not responded A request for comment, but political badysts said that it was little likely that Russia is considering an agreement on Ukraine before the Ukrainian presidential and legislative elections next year

"There will be no sensational results," said Volodymyr Fesenko. " For the moment, there are no obvious preconditions for any kind of compromise. "

Trump has long expressed the desire for better relations with Russia, even though Washington is toughening sanctions, and Kremli Moscow did not hide Wednesday its joy that such a meeting was finally agreed with the Kremlin's badistant Yuri Ushakov, saying Wednesday that the two men were to talk for several hours. He spoke of a possible joint statement on improving US-Russian relations and international security.

Trump congratulated Putin by telephone in March after the victory of the Russian leader in the re-election

. Moscow has deteriorated following the conflict in Syria and the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, which has caused large diplomatic evictions in both countries.

The expectations for a summit are therefore low.

Russian companies and individuals charged in connection with an investigation into possible collusion between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign in 2016. Trump denies wrongdoing and calls the investigation "hunting" to witches ".

The conclusion of the American intelligence community that Moscow seeks to interfere in this campaign to tip the balance in favor of Trump Bolton told reporters in Moscow that he expected that the Russia's interference in US politics was discussed at the summit and said that it did not rule out Trump discussing the possibility for Russia to join the G8. After Trump and Putin met briefly in Vietnam in November 2017, Trump was criticized in the United States for saying that he believed Putin when the Russian president denied accusations that Russia would have interfered with elections of 2016. [19659003] In a post on Twitter Thursday before the announcement of the meeting in Helsinki, Trump again seemed to cast doubt on the involvement of Russia. "Russia continues to say that they had nothing to do with Meddling in our election!" He wrote

in Washington, the tweet has been criticized by the Democrats and at least one of the other Republicans of Trump

"Of course, Putin continues to deny interfering in our elections, but he did .. Republican Senator Marco Rubio wrote:

The Democrats said the meeting was a gift to the Kremlin and worried about what Trump might be giving away. other.

"If something were to happen at this meeting, President Trump must inform Putin of his intention to aggressively implement the severe sanctions that Congress pbaded last year, almost at the same time. And unanimously, and say to Putin that we will no longer remain destabilizing and harming ourselves. top The Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer

In Moscow, the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that it was better not to be too excited about what the summit might bring

as "breakthrough oughs," said the RIA news agency. "I suggest adopting a fairly pragmatic and realistic view of these meetings."

The summit is a a boost for Finland, whose capital hosted major Cold War summits between leaders such as Leonid Breznhev and Gerald Ford in 1975 and Mikhail Gorbachev and George HW Bush in 1990 before organizing a meeting between Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton in 1997.

Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said that Russia and the United States had only been in touch with him about the summit last week and hoped that Putin Trump would discuss arms control and take into account his own concerns about tensions in the Baltic Sea region.

"Even small steps in the reduction of tensions would be in the interest of everyone"

(Additional report by Denis Pinchuk and Maria Kiselyova in Moscow, Robin Emmott in Brussels, Alessandra Prentice in Kiev and Stine Jacobsen in Helsinki, Written by Doina Chiacu and Andrew Osborn, edited by Frances Kerry, William Maclean and Andrew Heavens)

This story was not edited by the staff of Firstpost and is generated by L & # 39; self-feeding.