Trump, Putin to meet in Helsinki on July 16

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a summit in Finland's capital Helsinki on July 16, the Kremlin said Thursday.

The two leaders are expected to discuss Russia-U.S. relations as well as top international issues, according to the statement.

On Wednesday, Putin held a closed-door meeting with visiting U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton at the Kremlin and discussed details of the summit.

The summit may last several hours with the two presidents having a tete-a-tete in the middle of the day and then together with their delegations, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said following the talks between Putin and Bolton.

"They could agree on a joint statement outlining further steps from both sides to improve bilateral relations and joint action in the international arena to ensure global stability and security," he said.

Ushakov said Putin and Bolton discussed priority issues that the presidents would address at the upcoming summit, in particular Syria and its humanitarian needs.

On Thursday, the White House also made a statement on the Trump-Putin summit. Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the two leaders would discuss bilateral ties and a range of national security issues.

Earlier, on June 8, top U.S. and Russian military commanders met in Helsinki and discussed various bilateral and global issues.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General of USA Joseph F. Dunford and Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov discussed the deconfliction of Coalition and Russian operations in Syria, said a statement of US Joint Staff Spokesperson Col. Patrick S. Ryder.