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Putin. their after will meet and build some muscle memory for negotiation. if we get started now, then i think our pros can get it done. edrequire' controversial the president is thinking about a grand bargain. everyone around the world wants to do something to stop the civil war, stop this crisis in syria. we have isis there, we can't forget the u.s. is having success during the trump administration. but there is a concern among the president's critics and allies in congress that he might give up too much in terms recognizing russia's annexation of crimea in the ukraine. what's your take on t...

It means they are competitors. ed: joining me live is a foreign policy fellow at the brookings institution joining us from washington. thanks for joining us. >> a pleasure. ed: let's dispense with this question about nato. the president's critics have been saying that some of his verbal barbs that germans and others was an attempt to split nato because that's something vladimir putin wants, to see a weak nato. the president tweeted no, we have never been stronger. i'm not trying to split the alliance. but he has tough words for the e.u. where do you come down on what he's really doing here? >>...

He's blowing up nato. then you just listed a series of things that were successes coming out of the nato summit. we are hearing critics saying he shouldn't sit down with putin. putin has already won because he wants to be on a world stage with a higher profile. now with the president setting expectations pretty low. could we see positive things come out of this summit despite the criticism? >> in many ways the president's pressing on nato and the 2% mark which all nato members agreed to a long time ago has been good for nato. all u.s. presidents have been frustrated by this underspending bit s...

Spending. most european allies are not hitting the 2% park but they plan top hit it by 2024. but nato accomplished a lot of things. they recommitted to article 5. they committed to opening two new structures that will have an eye toward russia and try to deter russian aggression. on the e.u., i think the president sees the e.u. in transactional terms. he sees them as a trade partner and he doesn't think the united states is getting a great deal from the trade relationship. when he says they are a foe, he's talking about the trade sense of the word. ed: the president delights in being a disrupt...

Netanyahu. and others in the white house talking about the possibility of from this summit you can begin the conversation getting help from putin. get iran out of syria and get iran pushed further back from israel. protect our allies and bring some resolution to the crisis in syria. >> you got into much of the nuance there. it's an extremely complicated battlefield. we have rebel groups we backed in the past and nato groups that will have to be extracted. but the president and vladimir putin need to get together and decide on a deliverable or future plan much as he did with kim jong-un. they a...