A handshake in Helsinki, then two presidents get down to business

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This was published 5 years ago

A handshake in Helsinki, then two presidents get down to business

By Nick Miller
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin shake hands before heading into a private meeting.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin shake hands before heading into a private meeting.Credit: AP

Helsinki Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have shaken hands and exchanged pleasantries in Helsinki before beginning a private meeting which Mr Trump said would cover “everything from trade to military to missiles to nuclear to China”.

The Russian President’s plane landed more than half an hour late for the hotly anticipated meeting in the Finnish capital, continuing a notorious tradition of keeping world leaders waiting. He previously kept former US President Barack Obama waiting 40 minutes in 2012, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel more than four hours in 2014.

Mr Trump had arrived in Helsinki the night before.

On arrival at the Finnish presidential palace the two spoke briefly with the media before the doors were closed on their tete-a-tete, at which the only people in attendance were translators.

The private session was to be followed by a bigger meeting including the two presidents’ senior aides and advisers.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin face the world\'s media.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin face the world\'s media.Credit: AP

After welcoming Mr Trump to Helsinki, Mr Putin told Mr Trump that it was time to talk about relations between Moscow and Washington and he suggested they should discuss difficult multi-national issues.

"It is now time to talk in depth about our bilateral ties and sore points in the world," Mr Putin said in Russian.

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"There are enough of them for us to start paying attention," he said.

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Mr Trump then spoke for a few minutes, beginning by congratulating Mr Putin on “one of the best ever” football World Cups, saying that he had watched the entire final and semi-finals.

Mr Putin allowed himself a small smile at Mr Trump’s opening gambit.

Mr Trump went on to say that “most importantly we have a lot of good things to talk about and things to talk about”.

The US President did not mention election meddling in his opening comments although he has repeatedly said previously that he would bring it up with Mr Putin.

“We will have discussions on everything from trade to military to missiles to nuclear to China, we’ll be talking a little bit about China (and) our mutual friend President Xi [Jinping],” he said.

Mr Trump said the US and Russia “have not been getting along well for the last number of years... getting close to two years”.

“I think we will end up having an extraordinary relationship, I hope so…  getting along with Russia is a good thing not a bad thing," he said.

“The world wants to see us getting along, we are the two great nuclear powers, we have 90 per cent of the nuclear (weapons), that’s not a good thing it’s a bad thing. I think hopefully we can do something about that because it’s not a positive force it’s a negative force.

“With that the world awaits and I look forward to our personal discussion… we all have a lot of questions, hopefully we will come up with answers.”

Mr Putin appeared to smirk as Mr Trump ignored shouted questions about whether he would warn the Russian leader against meddling in the 2018 midterm elections.

Mr Trump then initiated a short handshake between the pair, and the media were ushered from the room.

with AP

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