INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Donald Trump said he will talk about Syria, Ukraine, elections and other global issues in the meet.(File)Washington: US President Donald
Trump has said he will talk about Syria, Ukraine, elections and other global issues when he meets his Russian counterpart President Vladimir
Putin in Helsinki on July 16.Mr Trump and Mr Putin will meet in the Finnish capital to mend the bilateral relations and discuss a range of
national security issues, the White House and the Kremlin announced on Thursday."We're going to be talking about Ukraine, we're going to be
talking about Syria, we're going to be talking about elections
We don't want anybody tampering with elections
We'll be talking about world events," Mr Trump said yesterday."We'll be talking about peace
We may even talk about saving millions of dollars on weaponswe are building a force like nobody's ever seen before," he told reporters when
asked about his meeting with Mr Putin next month.This would be Mr Trump's first summit with Mr Putin, even though the leaders have met twice
in the last one and half year.The announcement of the meeting had followed after Mr Putin met US National Security Adviser John Bolton, who
was in Moscow this week to lay the groundwork for the summit."Perhaps the world can deescalate with China, Russiamay be the world can
That would not be a bad thing
But I think having a relationship with China, Russiait's a good thing," Mr Trump said.Asked about lifting of sanctions on Russia, Mr Trump
appeared to be non-committal."We'll see what Russia does
We're going to be talking to Russia about a lot of things
We're going to be talking to them about Syria," he said.Responding to a question on NATO, Mr Trump reiterated that other countries had to
spend more."NATO is very interesting, we'll see what happens there
Germany has to spend more money, Spain, France, it's not fair what they've done to the United States," he said, adding that the US is paying
much more disproportionately to anyone else.From the beginning of his presidential campaign, Mr Trump has insisted that he wants a better
relationship with Russia, asserting that it will be good for the US and for the world.However, he has been facing backlash from the
Opposition Democrats and the think-tank community who believe that Russia under Mr Putin interfered in the 2016 presidential election
Moscow has denied the allegations.
