Donald Trump has spoken about his wish that he and Vladimir Putin become friends one day, but said, for the moment, they are ultimately competitors. The two are due to meet for talks in Finland next week. Taking questions after an emergency NATO meeting Thursday, Trump was asked how he sees the Russian president. “Ultimately he’s a competitor—he’s representing Russia, I'm representing the United States,” said Trump. “In a sense we’re competitors, it’s not a question of friend or enemy. He’s not my enemy. Hopefully some day maybe he’ll be a friend, it could happen, but I just don’t know him very well.” Trump went on to say he expects to discuss a range of topics with the Russia president including Ukraine, the situation in Syria, Russian violations of the INF treaty, arms control, and Russian meddling in U.S. elections. “We’ll see what happens—it’s just a loose meeting, it’s not going to big schedule,” he said. “I don’t think it should take a very long period of time. We’ll see where it leads, but it could lead to something very productive.”
