First Trump-Putin meeting planned during European trip
But White House points to Warsaw visit
USA TODAY WASHINGTON The eyes of the world will be on Hamburg, Germany, this week, as President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin — whose long-distance has relationship already sparked months of debate and speculation — will meet for the first time.
But Trump’s Russia policy could begin to take shape not at the Group of 20 meeting Friday in Hamburg, but in Warsaw beginning Thursday. There, Trump will meet with an important ally, and give what’s being billed by the White House as a “major speech” about the future of America’s relationship with Europe.
And he’ll meet with the leaders of 12 eastern European countries as part of an emerging regional effort known as the Three Seas Initiative — an energy-driven economic partnership seen as a counterbalance to Russia.
“Warsaw provides a fantastic opportunity to provide the Trump vision of foreign policy,” said Ian Brezinski, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
For Trump, it’s a second chance to make a first impression in Europe.
In Brussels in May, Trump scolded NATO allies for not meeting their commitments to spend 2 percent of economic output on defense.
Poland is one of only five countries that meet the burden-sharing agreement, and is the home of 4,000 newly placed U.S. troops meant to deter Russian aggression.
“Brussels, unfortunately, was a flat-footed articulation of U.S. policy,” Brezinski said. “Warsaw provides an opportunity to recalibrate some of his rhetoric that was unhelpful in Brussels.”
For many allies, that begins by condemning Russian efforts to undermine Western democracies. National Security AdvisIndonesia er H.R. McMaster said last week that Trump’s policy was “to confront Russia’s destabilizing behavior — whether it’s cyberthreats, whether it’s political subversion here in Europe and elsewhere.”
But Trump has been slow to acknowledge what the intelligence community says was a Russian effort to to interfere in the 2016 election, with propaganda and by orchestrating the theft and release of emails belonging to campaign aides of his rival, Hillary Clinton.
White House officials tried to downplay the meeting with Putin at the G-20 summit, insisting that it is no different from those planned with the world leaders from Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, China, Mexico, and Singapore.
“Our relationship with Russia is not different from any other country in terms of us communicating to them, really, what our concerns are, where we see problems in the relationship, but also opportunities,” McMaster told reporters.
And it’s not entirely clear the meeting will even happen.
Global summits provide opportunities for world leaders to meet one-on-one in what are sometimes called “pull-asides,” but a Kremlin spokesman said the only confirmed contact would be during the group meeting with leaders of the other world economic powers.
If there is a meeting, it should be as transparent and public as possible, said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.
“I don’t know that I trust what he says or does behind those closed doors. He needs to make an open statement, with Mr. Putin standing there,” said Meeks, a member of the House Foreign Affairs committee and ranking Democrat on its European subcommittee.