The Kremlin expects the first meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg to establish an effective working dialogue between the two leaders, a spokesman said on July 5.

Their first face-to-face encounter, due to take place on July 7 on the sidelines of the event, comes at a low point in bilateral relations, which plummeted in the past three years over the conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, and allegations that Moscow influenced the US elections last November through cyber hacking. Trump’s own alleged ties with Russia are also under close scrutiny in the US.

“This is the first meeting, the first acquaintance of the two presidents, and that’s the importance of the meeting,” Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked on the expectations about the upcoming talks.

“We expect a working dialogue to be established that is probably vital for the entire world in terms of increasing the effectiveness of solving the critical amount of conflicts and problems that are growing every day,” TASS quoted Peskov as saying.

The spokesman added that the leaders were also most likely to discuss bilateral cooperation on the fight against terrorism in Syria, and “perspectives for the inter-Syrian settlement”.

Ukraine will also figure in the discussions, but time limitations meant Putin might not be able to give a full analysis of what Moscow sees as the causes of the Ukraine crisis, Peskov added.

Three years after Moscow annexed Crimea and supported a pro-Russian separatist uprising in East Ukraine, efforts to end the conflict peacefully have almost ground to a halt despite a ceasefire agreement reached in February 2015 in the Belarusian capital Minsk by Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France.

However, the meeting with Trump would “be a good chance to reiterate Russia's stance that the Minsk accords have no alternative, that the Minsk accords must be implemented, and that measures must be taken to stop provocations which unfortunately Ukraine’s armed forces are still carrying out”, Peskov said.