Russian and U.S. presidents to hold bilateral meeting at G20 summit: White House

WASHINGTON, July 4 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Donald Trump will hold an official bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, the White House confirmed on Tuesday.

Citing remarks by U.S. National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton, CNN reported that the first in-person meeting between Trump and Putin and the first official U.S.-Russian bilateral meeting in almost two years will occur on Friday.

However, the exact agenda for the bilateral meeting had yet to be set, according to CNN.

The first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders will come as the United States and Russia hold differences on a slew of issues, including the Syrian conflict, the Ukrainian crisis and the alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election.

In April, Trump said the United States was “not getting along with Russia at all” and the relations between the two countries “may be at an all-time low.”

Meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Washington in mid-May, Trump expressed his desire to build a better relationship between the two countries.

Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States is working to stabilize its relationship with Russia, which is “at an all-time low.”

“Our relationship is at an all-time low, and it’s been deteriorating further. Our objective is to stabilize that,” Tillerson told lawmakers at a Senate hearing.