Trump will meet face-to-face with Putin in Germany next week
WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump has governed five months under a cloud of questions about his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, yet the two men will meet next week for the first time, on the sidelines of the G-20 summit of world leaders in Hamburg, Germany.
White House officials on Thursday confirmed plans for the private meeting but said no decisions had been made about the topics Trump will raise. So it's unclear whether the men will discuss Russia's election-year cyberattacks that are the focus of criminal and congressional investigations.
"Our relationship with Russia is not different from any other country in terms of us communicating with them, really, what our concerns are, where we see problems in the relationship but also opportunities," said Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster.
McMaster said he expected the two men to have "a broad, wide-ranging discussion" about problems in the relationship but also about where the U.S. and Russia have "common interests."
"There's no specific agenda," McMaster said. "It's really going to be whatever the president wants to talk about," he added.
_Tribune Washington Bureau
