A day after U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton met Russian President Vladimir Putin face-to-face and an agreement was made to hold a summit between President Donald Trump and Putin, a date and location has been announced.
Presidents Trump and Putin will meet on July 16 in Helsinki, Finland, the White House announced early Thursday.
The White House said the two will “discuss relations between the United States and Russia and a range of national security issues.”
This comes as Trump tweeted Thursday morning about the Russia investigation and the “questions” and “corruption” around the relationship between Hillary Clinton and Russia.
Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election! Where is the DNC Server, and why didn’t Shady James Comey and the now disgraced FBI agents take and closely examine it? Why isn’t Hillary/Russia being looked at? So many questions, so much corruption!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2018
On Wednesday, the Russian Embassy posted that the date and venue have been selected for the summit, and that an announcement would be made on Thursday.
“Moscow and Washington have agreed on the date and venue for the meeting between Russian and U.S. Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, the details will be announced on Thursday, June 28, Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters following meeting between the Russian leader and U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton,” the Embassy posted to Facebook.
“The two countries have discussed the issue (about the summit) for a long time, it has been discussed through closed channels. I can say that an agreement has been reached on holding the summit, even an agreement on the time and venue. We will presumably announce that tomorrow together with our U.S. counterparts,’ Ushakov said on Wednesday,” the Embassy added.
Vladimir Putin received John Bolton, national security adviser to the President of the United States of America, in the Kremlin.
Agreement has been reached on holding 🇷🇺#RussiaUS🇺🇸 summit, an agreement on the time and venue.➡️ https://t.co/fWGpdLRBJJ pic.twitter.com/DHc33pApyr
— Russia in USA 🇷🇺 (@RusEmbUSA) June 27, 2018
The Associated Press was first to break the news on Wednesday, this just after news had spread that National Security Adviser John Bolton was in Russia to meet with top officials there.
It was announced Wednesday that he met with Putin and other top officials in order to discuss relations and lay the groundwork for a potential summit with President Donald Trump.
Pres. Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton meets with Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin in Moscow, says he looks forward to discussing “how to improve Russian-U.S. relations, find areas where we can agree and make progress.” https://t.co/aYF3Qp4vw2 pic.twitter.com/zWf4bghjSi
— ABC News (@ABC) June 27, 2018
“Your visit here to Moscow inspires hope that we will be able to take first steps to restore full-fledged relations between Russia and the United States,” Putin told Bolton. “Russia never sought confrontation, and I hope that today we will be able to talk about what we can do from both sides in order to restore full-fledged relations on the foundation of equality and of respect for each other’s interests.”
Bolton said he hoped the two nations could find “areas where we can agree and make progress together,” adding that he wanted to hear “about how you handled the World Cup so successfully.”
The White House confirmed Bolton’s meeting with Putin.
“While in Moscow today, Ambassador Bolton is meeting with President Vladimir Putin and other senior Russian officials to discuss United States-Russia relations, as well the potential for a Presidential meeting,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted Wednesday.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Bolton would meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.
The trip to Russia and meeting with Lavrov are expected to lay the groundwork for an upcoming meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“And I think it’s likely President Trump will be meeting with his counterpart in the not too distant future following that meeting,” Pompeo said in an MSNBC interview.
It was recently reported that Trump is going to plan a meeting with Putin in July while he is visiting Europe. That meeting could take place before the NATO summit in Brussels on July 11 or after Trump’s visit to Great Britain on July 13.
