Donald Trump met one-on-one with Vladimir Putin behind closed
doors on Monday in a long-awaited summit overshadowed by the US
president blaming his own country’s past “foolishness and stupidity” for
the two powers’ hostile ties.
Just days after a
special prosecutor indicted 12 Russian agents for stealing documents
from the Democratic Party to help Trump win the 2016 presidential
election, Trump went into his talks with Putin without a word of
criticism for Moscow.
Instead, he tweeted: “Our
relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of US
foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!”
The Russian foreign ministry “liked” his words and tweeted back: “We agree”.
Trump’s
opponents at home were furious, with one Democratic congressman saying
that Trump had turned the White House into “a propaganda arm for the
Kremlin”.
After two hours alone in a room with their
interpreters, Trump and Putin convened a more traditional-style
bilateral meeting, seated at a large conference table surrounded by
senior officials from both countries. Trump called the private talks
with the Kremlin leader a “good start”.
"An extraordinary relationship"
Earlier
Trump began the meeting with warm words for Putin, seated next to the
Russian leader in an ornate presidential palace in Finland, and said it
was a longstanding goal of his to improve US-Russian relations.
“I
think we will have an extraordinary relationship. I hope so. I’ve been
saying it, and I’m sure you’ve heard over the years, and as I
campaigned, that getting along with Russia is good thing, not a bad
thing,” he said.
But to Trump’s critics, the friendly
words lay in the shadow of his extraordinary denunciation of his own
country’s prior policies, which he tweeted hours before Putin arrived.
In
his public remarks at the outset, he mentioned none of the issues that
have lately brought US-Russian relations to the lowest point since the
Cold War: Moscow’s annexation of territory from Ukraine, its support for
Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, British accusations that it poisoned a spy, as
well as the alleged meddling in both US and European elections.
“Our
relationship with Russia is strained because of the very malign actions
he’s refusing to take Russia to task for,” tweeted Democratic US
Representative Gregory Meeks, a member of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee.
“Though relations were worse during the Cold War, at least then the US Presidency wasn’t a propaganda arm for the Kremlin.”
The
Kremlin has played down expectations for the summit. It said it did not
expect much from the meeting but hoped it would be a “first step” to
resolving a crisis in ties.
“Presidents Trump and Putin
respect each other and they get along well,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov said. “There is no clear agenda. It will be determined by the
heads of state themselves as they go along.”
However,
that the summit was taking place at all was a victory for Russia, which
has long blamed irrational “Russophobia” for its geopolitical
semi-pariah status.
“Which team do you play for?”
Trump’s
foes at home have been scathing about his apparent refusal to criticise
Putin. His 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton tweeted: “Great World Cup.
Question for President Trump as he meets Putin: Do you know which team
you play for?”
Russia denies interfering in the US
presidential election. The state RIA news agency quoted a Russian source
as saying Moscow was “ready to discuss, ready to undertake mutual
obligations of non-intervention into internal matters”.
Trump
has said he will raise the election meddling but does not expect to get
anywhere. He has repeatedly noted that Putin denies it, while also
saying that it is alleged to have taken place before he became
president.
The summit caps a trip abroad during which
Trump sternly criticised NATO allies for failing to spend enough on
their militaries and embarrassed British Prime Minister Theresa May by
saying she refused to take his advice about how to negotiate Britain’s
exit from the EU. He referred to the European Union itself as a “foe” in
trade, and repeatedly criticised it.
In some of the
strongest words yet reflecting the unease of Washington’s traditional
allies, Germany’s foreign minister said on Monday Europe could not rely
on Trump.
“We can no longer completely rely on the
White House,” Heiko Maas told the Funke newspaper group. “To maintain
our partnership with the USA we must readjust it. The first clear
consequence can only be that we need to align ourselves even more
closely in Europe.”
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