The American and Russian presidents met for about two hours at the Finnish Presidential Palace in Helsinki.

Both leaders acknowledged the need to improve relations and addressed a range of issues including the Iranian nuclear deal, Syria’s civil war and the U.S. presidential election.

CGTN’s Nathan King reports from Helsinki.

Follow Nathan King on Twitter@nathanking

To discuss:

• Alexander Nekrassov is a former adviser to the Russian government.
• Lester Munson is the vice president with BGR Group, a strategic consulting firm.
• Maxime Larive is a research associate at the EU Center of Excellence at the University of Miami.
• Joel Rubin is the president of the Washington Strategy group, a U.S. security consulting and lobbying firm.

For more:

Shock as Trump backs Putin on election meddling at summit https://t.co/ajCwHnw5yW

— Reuters (@Reuters) July 16, 2018

VP Pence on the Trump-Putin summit:

"What the world saw and what the American people saw, is that President Donald Trump will always put the prosperity and security of America first."https://t.co/d78lF0GlCt pic.twitter.com/khZ02kLtLO

— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 16, 2018