US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin held a historic summit on Monday in the Finnish capital Helsinki to forge a reset of troubled relations between the world’s greatest nuclear powers.
Monday’s highly anticipated meeting takes place in the wake of a contentious NATO summit, and only days after the U.S. Justice Department charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democrats in an attempt to interfere with the 2016 election.
Lasting for about two hours, the meeting consisted of only Trump, Putin and some interpreters, Finnish officials told assembled White House reporters.
“I think we have great opportunities together,” Trump, seated next to Putin, told reporters before the meeting between the leaders. “And frankly we have not been getting along very well in the last number of years. It’s getting close to two years”.
“I think we will have an extraordinary relationship. I really think the world wants to see us get along”, the President added.
Putin told Trump at the start of their summit on Monday that “the time has come to talk thoroughly about bilateral relations, as well as various hotspots in the world”.
Trump said their discussions would involve trade, the military, missiles, nuclear weapons and China, including their “mutual friend” China’s Xi Jinping.
There were indications of an arrangement to work together and with Israel to support a ceasefire in southern Syria, suggesting that the US administration is backing off its demand that Moscow’s ally Bashar al-Assad step down.
“And I really think the world wants to see us get along. We are the two great nuclear powers. We have 90% of the nuclear, and that’s not a good thing. That’s a bad thing”, “And with that the world awaits, and I look forward to our personal discussion” said Trump.
> Shatabdi Sarker Poushi
Trump-Putin Helsinki Summit Kicks off to Improve ‘Extraordinary Relationship’
