Trump-Putin summit 'is on' says White House

International Desk: A summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin will go ahead as planned despite tension over Moscow's alleged election meddling, the White House says.

The pair will meet for talks in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, on Monday.

"It's on," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.

But there are calls for the meeting to be cancelled after the US charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with election interference on Friday.

For its part, Russia said it was looking forawrd to the meeting.

"We consider Trump a negotiating partner," said Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov.

"The state of bilateral relations is very bad. We have to start to set them right."

The announcement that the Russians had been charged with hacking Democratic officials during the 2016 presidential election sparked a heated war of words between Washington and Moscow.

Russia's foreign ministry said the claims were a "heap of conspiracy schemes" intended to "damage the atmosphere" before Monday's summit.

It said there was no evidence linking any of the dozen officials to hacking or military intelligence.

But US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein insisted that "the goal of the conspirators was to have an impact on the election."

During a joint news conference with UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday, Mr Trump said he would "absolutely" ask the Russian president about alleged election meddling.

But top Democrats have urged him to cancel the planned summit altogether following the indictment.

Agencies


risingbd/Dhaka/July 14, 2018/Nasim