Trump, Putin planning to meet

Bolton denies ‘special relationship;’ EU tense over summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and U.S. National security adviser John Bolton meet Wednesday in the Kremlin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and U.S. National security adviser John Bolton meet Wednesday in the Kremlin.

MOSCOW -- President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a one-to-one summit in the next few weeks, officials of both countries said Wednesday, an encounter that has raised anxieties among major European allies of the United States.

Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, who had traveled to Moscow to lay the groundwork for the encounter, confirmed at a news conference that the meeting will take place. A short while earlier, Russian official Yuri Ushakov had said that the summit would be held in a "third country" in a few weeks.

Trump told reporters he'll probably be meeting with Putin during a July trip to Europe. He mentioned Helsinki and Vienna as possible venues, adding that he would be receiving an update from Bolton.

The two leaders met for the first time last July during the Group of 20 summit in Germany and met again on the sidelines of another international gathering in Vietnam in November.

But the prospect of a high-level encounter, one that would presumably focus on the U.S.-Russia relationship, has stirred anxieties in Europe given Trump's growing tensions with top American allies such as Germany, France and Canada.

Asked why the meeting was taking place despite the tensions between the countries, Bolton said: "I'd like to hear someone say this is a bad idea."

He said the time and place of the meeting would be announced today.

Asked whether the encounter signified a "special relationship" between the two countries -- a term that has traditionally been used to describe the relationship between the United States and Britain, its historic ally -- Bolton called the idea "complete nonsense."

Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nations, had for years before joining the Trump administration been a hard-liner on Russia. But he opened a meeting with Putin on Wednesday with a compliment, saying he looked forward to hearing from the Russian leader "how you handled the World Cup so successfully," Russian television showed.

In a televised portion of the meeting, Putin told Bolton: "I have to say with regret that Russian-American relations are not in the best shape and I've already said this repeatedly in public and am saying this to you now: I think that this is largely a result of the acute internal political struggle within the United States."

Other topics their discussion touched on were the state of bilateral ties, nuclear-arms control, the situation in Syria, the Ukrainian crisis, developments around North Korea and the U.S. exit from the Iranian nuclear deal -- topics Ushakov said would shape the summit agenda.

European officials have expressed fears that a meeting between Trump and Putin could overshadow or undermine a NATO summit in Brussels on July 11 and 12, particularly if that group gathering ends in acrimony, as the recently concluded meeting of the Group of 7 in Canada did.

NATO members have been eager to present a united front, but Trump has said that European nations do not shoulder their fair share of military expenses, and he has clashed bitterly with European leaders over trade and migration.

At the same time, Trump has been consistently reluctant to criticize Putin and eager to get together, despite elevated tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine, Syria and election meddling. Ushakov said Bolton and Russian officials had briefly discussed election meddling.

"From our side, we declared clearly that the Russian government did not meddle in U.S. processes, does not meddle and moreover did not meddle in the 2016 elections," Ushakov said.

This month, Trump urged other members of the Group of 7 major industrial powers to readmit Russia, which was expelled after its armed intervention in Ukraine in 2014 and seizure of Crimea.

Other members dismissed the suggestion as inappropriate because the Kremlin continued to support rebel separatists in eastern Ukraine. A peace settlement in Ukraine known as the Minsk II agreement has largely stalled. It was unclear whether Bolton would seek concessions from Russia on Ukraine or other matters at his meetings Wednesday.

As an incentive for easing sanctions, Russian officials have been promoting a revival of U.S. oil company ventures in Siberia and the Russian sector of the Arctic Ocean. Alexander Novak, Russia's energy minister, met this week in Washington with the secretaries of the Energy Department and the Treasury, Rick Perry and Steve Mnuchin, to discuss the oil and natural-gas business, including opportunities for U.S. companies in Russia, the Interfax news agency reported.

Information for this article was contributed by Vladimir Isachenkov of The Associated Press.

A Section on 06/28/2018

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