Donald Trump promises an 'extraordinary relationship' as he opens Helsinki summit with Putin
Trump-Putin summit
The much-anticipated summit began after almost an hour-long delay; reportedly because of Putin as he arrived half an hour late and then followed by Trump arriving minutes later.
The US and Russian leaders opened a historic summit in Helsinki on Monday, with Donald Trump promising an "extraordinary relationship" and Vladimir Putin saying it was high time to thrash out disputes around the world.
Looking sombre, they exchanged opening remarks in front of the press at the start of their summit in Helsinki. While Trump acclaimed the meeting's potential, Putin said: "The time has come to talk in a substantive way about our relations and problem areas of the world."
The much-anticipated summit began after almost an hour-long delay reportedly because of Putin as he arrived half an hour late and then followed by Trump arriving minutes later.
The summit comes at a time when relations between the two superpowers are widely seen on both sides to be at their lowest point since the Cold War. Trump has repeatedly said it would be in the US interest to improve those ties.
The leaders are expected to discuss, Ukraine crisis, election meddling allegations, nuclear weapons agreement in a 90-minute long talks
Earlier in the day, Trump had also blamed Washington's "foolishness and stupidity" for bad relations with Russia in Tweet.
"Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of USfoolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!" wrote Trump.
Critics and Trump's own advisers have also urged Trump to use the summit to press Putin hard about "malign" activities, from annexing Ukraine's Crimea peninsula to interfering in Western elections, to poisoning a spy in England, which Moscow denies.
However, Trump has said he will raise the election meddling but does not expect to get anywhere. He has repeatedly noted that Putin denies it, while also saying that it is alleged to have taken place before he became president.
Trump has also been reported predicting that he will be accused of being too soft on Putin no matter how the summit goes.