President Donald Trump shook hands with Russia’s Vladimir Putin at the start of their much anticipated meeting Friday and said he anticipates “positive things happening.”
Trump spoke as the first meeting between the two leaders began on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Germany, but he did not go into detail about which issues he would address.
“President Putin and I have been discussing various things, and I think it’s going very well. We’ve had some very, very good talks,” Trump said. “We’re going to have a talk now, and obviously that will continue. But we look forward to a lot of very positive things happening for Russia, for the United States, and for everybody concerned.”
Trump added that it was an “honor” to be with Putin. Putin said he was “delighted” to meet Trump “personally” before the pair shook hands and the throng of reporters and photographers left. Trump did not answer shouted questions about whether he would confront Putin about Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.
The U.S. president came into the meeting — which featured Trump, Putin, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and translators — without a specific agenda. It is not clear if Trump will bring up election meddling or if the Russian leader will ask about the potential of easing sanctions imposed by the outgoing Obama administration over Russian aggression in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea.
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