Trump to meet with Putin at G20 summit next week

Washington June 30 (IANS) US President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg Germany the White House said.

US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster made the announcement at a White House briefing on Thursday adding that there is no specific agenda. It s really going to be whatever the president wants to talk about.

The first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders will come amid tensions between the US and Russia as the two countries hold differences on a slew of issues including the Syrian conflict the Ukrainian crisis and the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Xinhua news agency reported.

In April Trump said the US was not getting along with Russia at all and the relations between the two countries may be at an all-time low.

Meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Washington in mid-May Trump expressed his desire to build a better relationship between the two countries.

Earlier this month US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the US is working to stabilize its relationship with Russia which is at an all-time low.

Our relationship is at an all-time low and it s been deteriorating further. Our objective is to stabilize that Tillerson told lawmakers at a Senate hearing.

--IANS
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