It has been confirmed that the US President Donald Trump will meet Russian President, Vladimir Putin on July 16, in Helsinki. This summit comes at an awkward moment when America is pretty much destroying its long-built relations with allies all over the world.
All this is happening while the US intelligence agencies are claiming that Moscow has meddled with 2016 elections from one side, and from the other, Trump tweeting: “Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!” POTUS also said numerous times how there was no foul play by Kremlin.
Just before Trump goes to meet with Putin, he will sit down with 29 members of NATO for talks that will be held in Brussels. America wants other members to spend more money on the military alliance needs, but that is not all. NATO was created in 1949 since West needed something that would counter Moscow influence both politically and more importantly military. Many, Trump included, are questioning the missions of the alliance.
If we take a look at the economic aspect of Trump’s politics, it is clear that leaving the G-7 meeting in such manner like POTUS did, might not be beneficial for the US or its allies. What many noticed is that Trump, later on, talked about the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, as someone who is “very dishonest and weak.” And if you remember, he praised Kim Jong Un, North Korean Dictator. Something similar could happen with Putin, as we do expect for him to be praised by his American colleague.
It has been clear for so many years that no country can prosper alone, and therefore, everyone needs allies. As a result of that, both NATO and G-7 were created, and now, some of the moves that were made by Trump are threatening to destabilize these two organizations giving more room for Moscow and Beijing to increase their influence on the world scene.
Looking at the relationship that POTUS has with other world leaders, it seems that he is getting along far better with Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin than with any of the US-allied leaders. With the summit between the two leaders, Putin will get praises from his counterpart thus significantly improving his and Russia’s image after annexing Crimea, military conflict in Syria, and tampering with the US elections, all that happened in the last few years.
Another thing that Putin will want is the relief from US sanctions and while we don’t think that this will happen, improving the relationship between Washington and Moscow will certainly help them.
There are several topics that will be cowered by Trump and Putin, and those include Syria, Crimea, Ukraine, sanctions, arms race, etc.
Source: newyorker.com
