Trump-Putin summit raises fear

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet for their first summit on July 16 in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.

The Kremlin and the White House announced the plan after reaching agreement for the leaders to meet.

The leaders have met twice before on the sidelines of international gatherings and spoken several times by phone.

The summit could irritate US allies, who want to isolate Mr Putin (left), or countries such as Ukraine that are nervous about what they see as Mr Trump’s friendly attitude towards the Russian leader.

It is also likely to go down badly among critics who question the commitment of Mr Trump (right) to the NATO alliance and who have been concerned about his frictions with Canada and Germany.

Moscow hopes the summit will restart a dialogue with Washington, said Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador to the UN.

“We need each other, not because we want to love each other,” Mr Nebenzia said.

“We simply need to hold normal, pragmatic relations with a major country upon which a lot in this world depends.”