Trump and Putin hold talks
Neither side expects Helsinki breakthrough
HELSINKI: After months of exchanging long-distance compliments, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin sat down yesterday for their first-ever summit, a potential political minefield at home for the US president but a geopolitical win for his Russian counterpart.
Neither side expected a major breakthrough from the talks in the Finnish capital beyond warm words, an agreement to begin repairing US-Russia relations, and maybe a deal to start talks on issues such as nuclear arms control and Syria.
The two men, who have praised each other’s leadership qualities from afar, could also agree to start restocking their respective embassies and returning confiscated diplomatic property after a wave of expulsions and retaliatory action prompted by the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.
Ahead of the summit, both sides talked down the event, however, Mr Trump told CBS he was going in with “low expectations” and John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, saying on ABC’s This Week that the United States was not looking for “deliverables” and that the meeting would be “unstructured”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russia’s RT TV station that he also had low expectations. He would regard the summit as a success if there was an agreement to merely reopen severed lines of communications across the board, he said.
For Mr Putin, the fact that the summit is even happening despite Russia’s semipariah status among some Americans and US allies is a geopolitical win because, in Russian eyes, it shows that Washington recognises Moscow as a great power whose interests must be taken into account.
For Russia, it is also a sign that Western efforts to isolate Moscow have failed.
But for Mr Trump, whose White House victory was actively supported by 12 Russian military intelligence agents, according to a US indictment, and whose entourage is still being investigated for possible collusion with Moscow, the meeting is freighted with domestic political risk.
“We can say confidently that Mr Putin’s political risks are lower than those of President Trump,” said Andrey Kortunov, head of RIAC, a Moscow think-tank close to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“Mr Putin has less to lose and more to gain because he does not have a domestic opposition, a potentially hostile legislature, and is not begin investigated like Mr Trump. But if you look at the US media, they mostly focus on potential risks. Nobody here really believes that any good can come out of this summit.”
A probe over allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election has clouded Mr Trump’s presidency. Mr Trump has denied any collusion with the Russians, a claim Russia backs.
The Helsinki summit is the capstone to a nearly week-long trip for Mr Trump during which he has sown doubts about his commitment to the Nato military alliance, Washington’s so-called special relationship with Britain, and US relations with the European Union that he called “a foe” in trade terms.
Against that backdrop and swirling uncertainty about what Mr Trump might do or say next, his summit with Mr Putin, which will include a one-on-one session with the Russian leader with only interpreters present, has both US allies and US politicians worried lest he makes hasty and sweeping concessions.
Some politicians in the West believe the summit is happening at one of the most crucial junctures for the West since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. Certain Nato allies fear Mr Putin might seek a grand deal that would undermine the US-led transatlantic alliance.
Mr Trump said he will raise the alleged Russian election meddling with Mr Putin but does not expect to get anywhere. He also spoke about halting Nato war games in the region and said that it would be good if everyone could get along.