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US President Donald Trump and Russian President  Vladimir Putin will meet on July 16 in Helsinki, the Kremlin and the  White House said on Thursday, a first official summit that will be  closely watched by nervous US allies in Europe and critics of Russia in  America.

 The two countries announced the details simultaneously a day after  striking a deal on holding the meeting following a visit to Moscow on  Wednesday by US national security adviser John Bolton."The two  leaders will discuss relations between the United States and Russia and a  range of national security issues," the White House said in a  statement.Trump and Putin have met twice before on the sidelines of international gatherings.Their  summit could irritate US allies who want to isolate Putin, such as  Britain, or who are concerned about what they see as Trump's overly  friendly attitude toward the Russian leader.It is also likely to  go down badly among critics who question Trump's commitment to the NATO  alliance and who have been concerned about his frictions with longtime  allies such as Canada and Germany over trade.Trump has long expressed a desire for better relations with Moscow, even as Washington tightens sanctions.Hanging  over relations with Russia since Trump took office in January last year  is the conclusion of US intelligence community that Moscow sought to  interfere in the 2016 presidential campaign to tilt the election in  Trump's favour.Moscow has long denied any meddling. A special  counsel is investigating possible collusion by the Trump campaign with  Russia, which Trump has denied.Bolton told reporters in Moscow he expected Russian meddling in US politics to be discussed at the summit.He  said he did not rule out Trump discussing Russia rejoining the Group of  Seven industrialized countries to make it the G8 again.After  Trump and Putin met briefly in Vietnam in November 2017, Trump was  criticized in the United States for saying he believed Putin when the  Russian president denied accusations that Russia meddled in the 2016  election.In a Twitter post on Thursday before the Helsinki  meeting was announced, Trump again appeared to cast doubt on Russian  involvement. "Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with  Meddling in our Election!" he wrote.In Washington on Wednesday,  Trump hinted that the summit venue might be the Finnish capital and  listed Syria and Ukraine as being among the many subjects he would  discuss with Putin.