Trump to meet Putin at G20 summit

By Safvan Allahverdi

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump will met Russian President Vladimir Putin at a G20 summit in Germany next week, the White House confirmed Thursday.

The first face-to-face meeting between the two men as presidents in Hamburg was confirmed by National security adviser H.R. McMaster in an off-camera briefing at the White House.

McMaster and economic adviser Gary Cohn said the agenda for the meeting or anyone else had not yet been finalized, in response to a question about whether Russian intervention on the 2016 U.S. presidential election would be discussed.

U.S. intelligence agencies have said publicly Russia is responsible for interfering in last year’s presidential election, putting them at odds with Trump who has dismissed the accusations.

The U.S. relationship with Russia is similar to other nations in terms of relaying concerns and finding areas of common ground, according to McMaster, who said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would lead the talks and has already been “engaged in a broad, wide-range discussion” about strains on the ties between Moscow and Washington and ways to work on items of shared interests.

During the summit that runs July 7-8, Trump also plans to meet with the leaders of China, Germany, South Korea and the U.K.