Trump heads to summit with no clear goal

Worries that he’ll make concessions to Putin

HELSINKI, Finland – When President Donald Trump flew to Singapore last month to meet with Kim Jong Un, he had a clear agenda: to try personal diplomacy, rather than insults and threats, in a still-unsuccessful effort to convince North Korea to give up its arsenal of nuclear weapons.

But Trump has no obvious goal and no agreedupon agenda other than basking in the global spotlight when he meets here Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, apparently planning to wing it – much as he did in Singapore – in hopes of charming the former KGB officer.

Although Trump himself proposed the summit in March, only one White House aide, national security adviser John Bolton, has met with senior Russians officials, a stark departure from typical planning. The two sides similarly have set no “deliverables,” tangible results that are normally determined long before a high-stakes summit.

Trump has sought to lower expectations of any substantive breakthrough on the critical policy and security divisions between Washington and Moscow, including the Kremlin’s interference in the U.S. election in 2016, its illegal seizure of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine, its military role and support for Iranian forces in Syria, and the New START arms control treaty set to expire in 2021.

“We go into that meeting not looking for so much,” Trump told reporters Thursday after he had bashed Germany and roiled the NATO summit in Brussels, rifts that Putin is likely to applaud given his antipathy to the military alliance that is the continent’s main bulwark against Russian aggression.

Trump exhibited remarkable nonchalance about what he called his “loose meeting” with the Russian strongman, whom he has never publicly criticized. “Hopefully, someday, maybe he’ll be a friend,” he said.

Russia’s efforts to subvert the 2016 U.S. elections Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and President Donald Trump during a photo session of world leaders on the closing day of the 25th APEC Summit in Da Nang, Vietnam.

grew far more clear Friday when the Justice Department announced criminal charges against a dozen Russian military intelligence officers for the systemic hacking of computers used by Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the Democratic National Committee, state boards of elections and other entities.

Trump said Friday in Britain that he would bring the issue up with Putin.

But he did not condemn the Kremlin-backed operation or suggest he would demand a halt to what has now been laid out in two federal indictments and confirmed by U.S. intelligence agencies, and the House and Senate intelligence committees.

“I will absolutely, firmly ask the question, and hopefully we’ll have a very good relationship with Russia,” he said.