A Kremlin official confirmed to The Associated Press that President Trump will be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin for a summit in the near future, with the exact date and location expected to be announced tomorrow. The White House has a three-day block reserved on the tail end of Trump's trip to the United Kingdom and Brussels in mid-July, Politico reports, with Helsinki rumored to be the likely location of the meeting.
Trump and Putin have met in person before, but it's always been on the sidelines of other events. "There are many topics that I'm sure President Trump and President Putin will discuss, and each of them is important to trying to put the relationship back in a place where there are a common set of understandings," said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over the weekend.
The summit is certain to reignite criticism of Trump's response to the U.S. intelligence community's belief that Russia meddled in the 2016 election; Trump has repeatedly dismissed those findings. National Security Adviser John Bolton is in Moscow on Wednesday, where he was reportedly working to finalize details about the summit.