Thursday

28th Sep 2023

Stage set for Trump-Putin finale

  • Nato and EU infighting make Putin look strong (Photo: kremlin.ru)

US leader Donald Trump has said he hoped to befriend Russia's Vladimir Putin at a showcase summit in Helsinki on Monday (16 July).

"He's been very nice to me … We get along very well," Trump said of the Russian president while in Brussels on Thursday.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Finlandia Hall freshly painted in Helsinki (Photo: Ian Kennedy)

"Hopefully, someday, maybe he'll be a friend," Trump added.

"Maybe we [the US] will get along with the group [Russia] that we're protecting [Europe] against. I think that's a real possibility," he said.

He downplayed the Helsinki summit, saying: "I think we go into that meeting not looking for so much".

He noted that talks would cover Putin's war in Syria, his other war in Ukraine, Russia's annexation of Crimea, and its meddling in the 2016 US election.

But he indicated he would give Putin an easy ride on election-meddling, at least.

"It's one of those things. All I can do is say: 'Did you?' and 'Don't do it again.' But he may deny it," Trump said, amid an US investigation into whether he himself colluded with Putin to influence the 2016 vote.

Trump also indicated he might let bygones be bygones on Crimea.

"They [Russia] built bridges to Crimea. They just opened a big bridge that was started years ago. They built, I think, a submarine port, substantially added billions of dollars," Trump said, praising Putin's investments there.

Trump, one day earlier, had signed a Nato declaration on non-recognition of the "illegal" annexation, but he said he felt free to change his mind.

"What will happen with Crimea from this point on? That I can't tell you," the US leader said.

The Helsinki talks culminate a week of Trump's bull-in-a-China-shop diplomacy in Europe.

He began by goring German leader Angela Merkel on her plans to build a Russia gas pipeline and on defence spending at a Nato summit in Brussels.

He even threatened to pull the US out of the Western alliance in what Merkel described as "intense" talks.

He then attacked British prime minister Theresa May while arriving in London, saying that her rival, Boris Johnson, might make a better PM, and that there would be no UK-US trade deal under May's Brexit plan.

Finland braces

The spectacle of Nato and EU infighting will make Putin look strong when he meets Trump on Monday, on the heels of the World Cup final in Moscow on Sunday.

The venue, Helsinki, also frames the talks in historic grandeur, recalling Cold War-era summits in the Finnish capital.

Finnish authorities have registered almost 1,500 journalists from 61 countries to cover the event, including from as far afield as Algeria, the Philippines, and Taiwan.

They also plan to introduce checks on their EU borders in a nationwide security scramble.

The Finlandia Hall congress centre, where the two leaders and up to 2,000 of their officials and diplomats will meet, has been freshly painted.

The Hotel Kamp in the city centre has also unfurled a banner, which says: "Keep Peace - that's how we say 'cheers' or 'na zdorovje' in Finnish."

But few Finns, and few Europeans, expected much good to come out of the event as preparations came to a head.

Just four percent of Finns said Trump had made the world a safer place in a survey for the Yle news agency.

That antipathy will be on show in four or more anti-Trump protests in Finland, following similar ones in the UK on Friday.

Most of his supporters had low levels of education and voted for far-right parties, the Yle survey found, highlighting a social divide in Europe.

Step backward?

"His behaviour ... is another profoundly disturbing signal that the president is more loyal to president Putin than to our Nato allies," two senators from the opposition Democratic Party in the US, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, said on Trump's conduct at the Nato summit, articulating broad Western concern.

"If the president leaves the Putin meeting without ironclad assurances and concrete steps toward a full cessation of Russian attacks on our democracy, this meeting will not only be a failure - it will be a grave step backward for the future of the international order," they said.

Opinion

Will EU join new US sanctions on Putin elite?

'Oligarch clause' in new US sanctions on Russia to start life on 29 January - but to what extent will the EU and US coordinate a blacklist of Putin's cronies?

EU’s €500m gender violence plan falls short, say auditors

The 'Spotlight Initiative' was launched in 2017 with a budget of €500 million to end all forms of violence or harmful practices against women and girls in partner countries, but so far it has had "little impact", say EU auditors.

Latest News

  1. Poland's culture of fear after three years of abortion 'ban'
  2. Time for a reset: EU regional funding needs overhauling
  3. Germany tightens police checks on Czech and Polish border
  4. EU Ombudsman warns of 'new normal' of crisis decision-making
  5. How do you make embarrassing EU documents 'disappear'?
  6. Resurgent Fico hopes for Slovak comeback at Saturday's election
  7. EU and US urge Azerbijan to allow aid access to Armenians
  8. EU warns of Russian 'mass manipulation' as elections loom

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators, industry & healthcare experts at the 24th IMDRF session, September 25-26, Berlin. Register by 20 Sept to join in person or online.
  2. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  3. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  4. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators & industry experts at the 24th IMDRF session- Berlin September 25-26. Register early for discounted hotel rates
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us