Trump-Putin summit begins in Helsinki

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday opened summit in Helsinki.

At the beginning of the meeting, Putin offered "to discuss sore points" in bilateral relations.

"It's time to thoroughly talk about our bilateral relations and different sore points [...]", Putin said while greeting Donald Trump.

Trump agreed that the two leaders have a lot to talk about -- including trade, military, nuclear and missile issues and relations with China.

“Frankly, we have not been getting along very well for the last number of years [...] I think we will end up having an extraordinary relationship,” Trump said.

“The world wants to see us get along," he added.

The sides reserved three hours for the tete-a-tete talks, which will be followed by the lunch and a news conference where Putin and Trump will answer four questions -- two from each Russian and American sides.

The two presidents will discuss Russian-U.S. relations and their further development, as well as current international matters, according to the Kremlin statement, released ahead of the meeting.

On the sidelines of the presidential meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will hold their first personal meeting.