Trump to meet with Putin at G-20 summit

BERLIN — President Donald Trump will convene a high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the summit of industrial and emerging-market nations in Germany next week, the White House said Thursday, amid swirling allegations about Moscow’s role in the 2016 elections.

European leaders, meanwhile, said Thursday that they are ready to defend the Paris climate accord and free trade when they face Trump at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe was “more determined than ever” to see the climate deal succeed.

National security adviser H.R. McMaster confirmed that Trump will meet with Putin along the sidelines of the annual Group of 20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany, part of an itinerary that will include meetings with several world leaders.

Trump’s first in-person encounter with Putin has been highly anticipated as Trump pushes back against allegations that some of his associates may have had contact with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign and the transition.

All 17 U.S. intelligence agencies have agreed Russia was behind last year’s hack of the Democratic Party’s email systems and tried to influence the 2016 election to benefit Trump. Members of his campaign are also under investigation for possible collusion with Russia in the lead-up to the campaign.

Trump has staunchly denied that he had any contacts with Russia during his campaign. Russian officials have denied any meddling in the 2016 election.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies after the White House’s announcement that Putin is expecting to meet with Trump in Hamburg. They “will meet at the summit in one way or another. We have said it before,” he told state-owned RIA Novosti news agency.

McMaster and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn would not say whether the president intends to address accusations that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, saying that the agenda is “not finalized” for this or any other meeting.

“Our relationship with Russia is not different from that with any other country in terms of us communicating to them really what our concerns are, where we see problems with the relationship but also opportunities,” McMaster said.

The U.S.-Russian relationship deteriorated during Obama’s eight years in office and Trump frequently said that he was hopeful of improving American ties with Russia.

But major disagreements remain over Ukraine and Syria, and Trump said in April that U.S-Russian relations “may be at an all-time low.” The meeting will also come as Congress considers legislation that would impose economic penalties against Russia and Iran, legislation that has stalled after it cleared the Senate.

The Trump administration’s “America First” approach to trade has caused widespread concern internationally, as has its decision to pull out of the Paris accord. Trump announced the withdrawal shortly after returning from last month’s Group of 7 summit in Italy.

Merkel told the German parliament that “we cannot expect easy talks in Hamburg” on climate issues when leaders of the G-20 global economic powers meet in the city July 7-8.

“The disagreement is obvious, and it would be dishonest to gloss over it,” she said. “I won’t do that, in any case.”

Still, meeting later Thursday with European participants in the G-20, she sought to downplay prospects of an outright clash with Trump. She and French President Emmanuel Macron said there is agreement on issues such as fighting terrorism and they will seek joint solutions.

Trump announced June 1 he was pulling the U.S. from the Paris deal. The U.S. could try to rejoin the agreement under more favorable terms or work to establish “an entirely new transaction,” Trump said.

After meeting the leaders of Britain, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway and the European Union in Berlin, Merkel said they were “united” behind the climate accord.

Macron underlined the Europeans’ “very strong commitment” to the Paris deal. He said he had “at least the hope, in any case, that one or another will be brought to reason and can follow us.”

Trump will kick off his second foreign trip in Warsaw, Poland, where he plans to deliver a speech at Krasinski Square, the site of the memorial to the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Germans during World War II.