The White House and Kremlin acknowledged that there will be a summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian government announced on Wednesday.
According to Reuters, Russian Foreign Affairs Adviser Yuri Ushakov said U.S. national security adviser John Bolton and Putin decided on a time and place to hold the high-stakes meeting.
Trump and Putin are expected to meet next month when the U.S. President will be in Europe for a summit with NATO allies and a visit to the United Kingdom.
Helsinki, Finland and Vienna, Austria are the possible locations where the summit might take place.
Bolton’s meeting was part of Trump’s long-held desire to hold a summit with Putin in order to form a personal relationship with the Russian leader and help repair frayed ties between their two nations.
Both leaders first met informally last July on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
Meanwhile, many U.S. lawmakers from both sides of the aisles have voiced their concerns about the summit, saying it is not a good idea, given Russia’s interference in the 2016 election that is under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Trump also stated that Russia should be welcomed back into the Group of Seven (G-7) major world economies.
“Whether you like it or not, and it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run,” Trump said ahead of this month’s G-7 summit. “And in the G-7, which used be the G-8, they threw Russia out. They should let Russia come back in because we should have Russia at the negotiating table.”
Russia was kicked from the group in 2014 as a response to its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
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