Trump, Putin set formal meeting during summit

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will sit down for an extended meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday on the sidelines of a major economic conference in Germany, a White House official said Tuesday.

Trump’s first face-to-face interaction with Putin will be a “normal bilateral meeting” during the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in a statement.

The label implies a longer and more formal meeting than the brief conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Trump also has on his schedule for Friday, and other such meetings with the leaders of Mexico, Japan and several other countries that day.

The meeting will be the first formal conversation between Putin and a U.S. president in nearly two years, after the U.S. moved to isolate Moscow after the Russian annexation of Ukrainian territory.

It comes during controversies over Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election and its support for the Syrian government. A special counsel is directing an FBI investigation into whether people associated with Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to hurt Hillary Clinton’s chances of being elected.

Trump campaigned on a promise to “get along” with Putin and forge a more cooperative relationship between the two countries. At times, he has called the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered with the election a “hoax.”