U.S. President Donald Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "competitor" and "not my enemy" ahead of a planned bilateral meeting.
"He is a competitor," Trump said in a press conference at the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Brussels. "Is he my enemy? He is not my enemy ... Hopefully someday maybe he will be a friend. I just don't know him very well."
Trump is scheduled to meet Putin in Finland on July 16. He said he would talk to Putin about arms control, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
"We go into that meeting not looking for so much. We want to find out about Syria," Trump said.
After Belgium, he will travel to Britain and then Finland.
