Trump and Putin to hold first bilateral meeting on Friday

US President Donald Trump and Russian opposite number Vladimir Putin will hold an official meeting for the first time on Friday during the G20 summit in Hamburg.

Trump’s links with the Kremlin have been intensely scrutinised in recent months amid allegations that members of his administration were in contact with Russia while it attempted to influence the result of the 2016 presidential election.

The White House and the Kremlin both confirmed the meeting on Tuesday, the first between a US and Russian president in two years.

Leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies will gather in Hamburg this week at the summit, with Trump’s meeting with Putin undoubtedly one of the key focuses following events over the last few months.

Leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies will gather in Hamburg this week

Despite speculation that the meeting between the two men would be a casual one, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told state news agency TASS that the meeting was 'planned as a fully-fledged, seated meeting'.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said last week that the primary focus of the G20 summit would be on climate change issues, potentially causing a showdown with Trump after the former reality TV star withdrew the US from the Paris climate accord last month.

Trump claimed that the agreement was disadvantageous to the country when pulling out of the landmark agreement on 1 June, but Merkel told the German parliament she was adamant about maintaining the deal.