Trump meets Finland President

Update: 2018-07-16 21:27 IST

 Helsinki [Finland]: United States President Donald Trump held a meeting with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto at his official residence Mantyniemi here on Monday.

The two leaders held talks and had working breakfast together. Trump was accompanied by high-ranking US officials including National Security Advisor (NSA) John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, CNN reported.

Separately, Melania and Finnish First Lady Jenni Haukio also met and held discussions.

Asked on his upcoming meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the US President said: "You'll be seeing in a little while. We'll do just fine, thank you."

Furthermore, Trump thanked his Finnish counterpart and other officials for hosting the summit, saying "the US highly respected your country."

On late Sunday night, Trump and his wife Melania arrived in Helsinki for the much-awaited summit with Putin.

Finland has a long legacy of hosting US-Russia summits because of its perceived neutrality and geographic location, as per several media reports.

Earlier on Friday, Trump said that he will "absolutely" ask his Russian counterpart about Moscow's alleged involvement in the US presidential election. "I will absolutely bring that up," Trump said of Russia meddling in 2016 election during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Russia had earlier denied meddling in the US election campaign, while Trump called special counsel Robert Mueller's probe on the Russian interference a "political witch hunt".

The meeting between Trump and Putin is likely to take place for several hours and the two presidents will address a joint news conference after that, according to the Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov.

Prior to the summit, Trump wrapped up his visits to the United Kingdom and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit in Brussels last week. 

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