Trump Predicts "Extraordinary Relationship" With Russia At Summit

(CBS)--Following slight delays in schedule,- Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have begun their day of meetings in Helsinki, Finland amid increasing tensions between the two nations.

"The world wants to see us get along," Mr. Trump remarked during the leaders' first formal meeting, adding, "I think we'll end up having an extraordinary relationship."

Mr. Trump kicked off his day by tweeting that U.S.-Russia relations were being soured by U.S. "foolishness" including the ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

It was a sentiment the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared after tweeting their own response: "We agree.

Trump calls European Union a "foe" before meeting Putin

Mr. Trump said he's going into his meeting with "very low expectations" in an interview with "CBS Evening News" anchor Jeff Glor. The -bilateral- summit nonetheless will be closely watched, amid concern from world leaders and U.S. lawmakers alike that the president may be too friendly toward a known adversary of the United States.

The president's top national security advisers have advised him publicly and privately to adopt a more hawkish tone towards Russia going into the summit, especially given the Justice Department's announcement Friday -- days before his meeting -- of a new round of indictments against 12 Russians for their alleged attempts to interfere in the presidential election. Democrats and some Republicans called on the president to call off the meeting, but the White House, when asked if the allegations would disrupt Mr. Trump's planned rendezvous with Putin, declared it was "still on."

Fueling European concerns about the meeting, when Glor asked Mr. Trump who he considered to be the biggest foe, he answered, "Well, I think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now, you wouldn't think of the European Union, but they're a foe. Russia is foe in certain respects. China is a foe economically, certainly they are a foe. But that doesn't mean they are bad. It doesn't mean anything. It means that they are competitive."

Trump predicts "extraordinary relationship" with Russia

"The world wants to see us get along," Mr. Trump remarked during the leaders' first formal meeting in Helsinki. He added, "Getting along with Russia is a good thing not a bad thing."

He spent a majority of time congratulating the leader on hosting a successful World Cup but said the two had a "lot of good things to talk about" in their private meeting today. Issues the president previewed as topics for discussion include trade, military, missiles and China.

"We have great opportunities together as two countries that frankly we have not been getting along very well for the last number of years," Mr. Trump said. "I think we'll end up having an extraordinary relationship," he predicted.

Mr. Trump added that the fact the two countries share a commonality in being nuclear powers is "not a good thing, that's a bad thing."

"I think we hopefully can do something about that, it's not a positive force it's a negative force so we'll be talking about that among other things," Mr. Trump said at the close of their first meeting.

According to the Associated Press, Putin, who spoke before Mr. Trump due to diplomatic protocol of being considered the "host" country, said that "the time has come to talk thoroughly about bilateral relations as well as various hotspots in the world." He called the meeting part of "continued constant contacts" between the two leaders.

Mr. Trump and Putin shook hands without answering shouted questions from reporters before heading to their private one-on-one meeting.

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