(Newswire.net— July 15, 2018) — US President Donald Trump and the Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin will meet on Monday in Finland’s capital Helsinki.
Ahead of the two world leaders’ summit, a new poll shows that nearly two-thirds of Germans believe that the US president is a greater threat to world peace than his Russian counterpart.
The results of a poll conducted by UK-based YouGov data analytics firm, published by Germany’s news giant DPA state that 16 percent of participants say Putin’s political behavior is dangerous but 36 percent said that Trump’s policy is worse.
Participants of the survey also describe the Russian president as more powerful than Trump, 43 percent against 25% for US President.
A number of German politicians share concern that Donald Trump would negotiate with Vladimir Putin unilaterally on subjects that might not be in line with NATO.
“There are great concerns in the alliance about what agreements Trump and Putin could reach” said during the summit Peter Beyer, transatlantic coordinator for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned Trump on Sunday not to make “unilateral deals” with Russia. “Unilateral deals at the expense of allies will harm the United States, too,” Maas stressed, adding that “the one who hits his partners risks losing eventually.”
The UK’s top politicians are also worried that the US President would agree to loosen the grip which NATO has under a “Russian aggression” excuse.
The US president stated earlier that he doesn’t believe Moscow is a threat to EU countries; however, he called his counterpart a “competitor.” Russian President and top politicians keep calling the US President a “partner.”
Moscow has noted that the goal of the meeting is to finally start changing the negative situation in relations between the US and Russia for the better.
Meanwhile, Finish people raise their voices against the summit arguing that Finland is not neutral in this matter, the Guardian reports. Ahead of the Helsinki meeting, various protests were launched with banners saying both Trump and Putin are not welcome.