Helsinki showdown: Donald Trump meets Vladimir Putin in Finland
THE news conference between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was disrupted as a man began shouting and waving a sign.
THE joint news conference by Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was disrupted as a man with a sign about nuclear weapons was hauled out of the room by security.
The protester, who identified himself as a US reporter for The Nation magazine, was dragged out of the room after he began shouting and waving a sign that read “Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty”.
But Sam Husseini appears to have just one published story in the magazine, and works as communications director at the Institute for Public Accuracy — a Washington-based non-profit that provides progressive experts for media interviews.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin began their news conference shortly after the commotion, with the US President offering remarkable support for his Russian coutnerpart’s denial of US presidential election meddling.
Mr Trump earlier said the talks were off to a “very good start” as he and Mr Putin joined senior aides for a working lunch after their private chat, which took place with only translators present.
Just happened here in Helsinki palace before Trump-Putin news conference —-Security hauls out a reporter holding up a sign saying “Nuclear Weapons Ban.†Here’s my video: pic.twitter.com/MedXDfmTn0
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) July 16, 2018
The two presidents sat down front of the world’s media for brief comments and a handshake before they met alone.
Mr Putin welcomed Mr Trump to Helsinki and said they had already spoken several times but it was now time to address relations between their countries, which would include some difficult multi-national issues.
“It is now time to talk in depth about our bilateral ties and sore points in the world — there are quite a lot of them for us to start paying attention,” Mr Putin said.
Neither leader mentioned North Korea, the alleged Russian interference in US elections, or anxiety in Europe over Russian activity, in their opening remarks.
Mr Trump said they would talk about China.
“Most importantly we have a lot of good things to discuss about trade, military to missiles to nuclear to China (and) our mutual friend President Xi (Jinping), we’ll talk a lot about China,” Mr Trump said.
He did not look at Mr Putin as he spoke, instead addressing media in front of him as he told of his desire for the two countries to get along better and have an “extraordinary” relationship.
“We have great opportunity together as two countries … we are not getting along as well as we could over the last two years.”
He said he had raised the deterioration in relations during his campaign for the presidency, when he maintained “getting along with Russia is a good thing”.
Mr Putin sat expressionless as his US counterpart spoke of their massive nuclear arsenals, and how the two countries controlled 90 per cent of the nuclear weapons on the planet.
“That’s not a good thing, it’s not a positive force, it’s a negative force.”
Mr Trump said “the world awaits” their meeting and he knew there were many questions so hoped “we have some answers”.
Mr Putin touched down in the Finnish capital just after 1pm local time, the time he had been due to meet summit host Sauli Niinisto, president of Finland, at the Presidential Palace.
The Russian president took his dark jacket off after leaving his plane and gave a quick wave to onlookers before getting into a vehicle that was part of a 23-car motorcade.
Mr Trump today said relations with Russia were at an all-time low, and a Kremlin spokesman said the situation between the two countries was “critical”.
Streets in central Helsinki were closed for the summit.
When Mr Putin arrived at the palace, his armoured car was driven under a large white marquee obscuring vision of him being greeted by Mr Niinisto. Mr Trump and First Lady Melania Trump — in his Cadillac dubbed “The Beast” — reached the palace about half an hour later in a 34-car motorcade.
The US President reportedly did not want to leave his hotel until Mr Putin had arrived.
The Trumps were driven into the same security marquee as the Russians, and a curtain quickly pulled closed behind them.
Mr Trump flew into Finland’s capital Helsinki last night with Mrs Trump and was met at the Presidential Palace by Mr Niinisto.
Mrs Trump was handed a bouquet of flowers as she and Mr Trump were shown through the palace and stood with Mr Niinisto and his wife Jenni Haukio on a balcony in the bright sunshine as they inspected the palace gardens.
In brief remarks before their bilateral meeting, Mr Trump thanked Mr Niinisto for his hospitality and told him how thrilled he was to be in Finland.
He said the NATO meeting — where he accused other leaders of not pulling their weight with defence spending — was “very successful”, insisting “NATO has never been more successful.”
The Trumps have left the presidential palace and will return to their hotel where Mr Trump will prepare for his face-to-face with Mr Putin, the first part of which will just be the two men alone without aides.
Earlier, Mr Trump took to Twitter to lay the blame for the rocky relationship with Russia not with Moscow, but with Washington.
“Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now the Rigged Witch Hunt,” he said referring to US special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged Russian meddling into US elections.
In another tweet, he said he was looking forward to meeting Mr Putin and complained he would not get enough credit if the summit was a success.
“Unfortunately, no matter how well I do at the Summit, if I was given the great city of Moscow as retribution for all the sins and evils committed by Russia over the years I would return to criticism that it wasn’t good enough,” he said.
One of the aspects of the pair’s meeting that will be closely watched is whether Mr Trump will rebuke Mr Putin for the election meddling.
Their meeting comes as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Pekovic told state-backed network RT there were obvious similarities between the two presidents.
“Any head of state, when talking to their foreign counterparts, has to take care of the interests of their state. And our president is quite pragmatic, quite consistent, quite practical,” Mr Pekovic said. “He always says that he cares about the national interests of Russia, above anything else. That’s why he understands the reciprocal beliefs of Donald Trump, as applied to his country.”
The spokesman also revealed what Mr Putin wanted out of the meeting. He told the station — which is considered a mouthpiece for the Russian government — there still needed to be co-operation between countries.
“This is what we hope to achieve at this summit. We hope this will be a baby step towards overcoming the current critical situation in our bilateral relations,” he said.
Mr Pekovic welcomed Mr Trump’s statements that he viewed Mr Putin as a competitor.
“But there is a but — competition has to be fair. We need fair competition in politics, in the economy. This helps all the global processes develop.”
He sought to play down fears the US and Russia would make deals to the detriment of Europe.
Mr Trump this week blasted European leaders for not contributing enough to NATO, and Mr Putin has been treated as an outcast by other nations since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and most recently, the Novichok nerve agent attack in the UK.
“Common sense tells us that countries of the world, especially European countries, should be interested in the normalisation of relations between Moscow and Washington,” said Mr Pekovic.
Both leaders have been targeted by cheeky messages Finland’s newspaper largest newspaper has erected around the city.
Helsingin Sanomat has posted 300 billboards written in English and Russia that highlighted the “turbulent relations with the media” both leaders had.
“Mr President welcome to the land of the free press” a huge billboard at Helsinki airport read.
It was a message that neither president would have been able to miss.
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