Trump and Putin choose Helsinki for first summit meeting

President Trump plans to meet President Vladimir V. Putin in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16 for one-on-one talks, according to the White House, a politically sensitive meeting that will take place while the special counsel continues to investigate the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia.

It will be the first formal summit meeting for Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, who have met twice on the sidelines of annual gatherings of world leaders, and it also comes at a particularly delicate moment, with midterm elections looming in the United States.

The Helsinki talks, which will come on the heels of a NATO summit meeting in Brussels on July 11 and 12, could also exacerbate American relations with European allies even as it eases tensions with Russia.

Mr. Trump this week sent his national security adviser, John R. Bolton, to Moscow, where he met on Wednesday with Mr. Putin.