No Deal: Trump and Putin Held Talks in Alaska

After Donald Trump’s presidential aircraft landed in Alaska, the Russian president’s plane arrived shortly after,  Orda.kz reports. 

The leaders stepped out almost simultaneously, greeted each other on a red carpet, and, following a brief exchange and photo session, traveled together to negotiations.

No Deal...Yet?

The talks were held at Elmendorf–Richardson military base under heavy security, with hundreds of personnel, armored vehicles, and snipers. The meeting took place in a “three-on-three” format — Trump with Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff; Putin with Sergey Lavrov and Yury Ushakov.

The central topic was resolving the war in Ukraine under the theme “In the Pursuit of Peace.”

A joint press conference in Anchorage followed the closed-door meeting.

Key points from Vladimir Putin:

• The talks were constructive and conducted in a spirit of mutual respect
  
• Russia and the U.S. are close neighbors, despite the ocean between them
  
• Russian–American relations have “fallen to their lowest point since the Cold War,” making the meeting necessary
  
• Ukrainians are a brotherly people to Russia
  
• Russia is genuinely interested in ending the “Ukrainian conflict” by removing its root causes
• Hopes that “Kyiv will not hinder the emerging progress” toward a settlement
  
• Russia and the U.S. have much to offer each other in various areas — from technology to the Arctic
  
• Under Trump, the war in Ukraine would not have begun
  
• Certain agreements were reached during the talks

Key points from Donald Trump:

• No final deal on Ukraine has yet been made
• Trump has an excellent relationship with Putin
• Agreements were reached on some points, but not on others
• There is a decent chance of achieving peace
• Thousands of people die each week, and Putin wants the war to end
• Trump will speak with NATO allies and with Zelenskyy
• He is preparing a three-way meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy, and confirmed he would attend

Putin invited Trump to hold the next meeting in Moscow.

The Russian president’s working visit to the U.S. lasted just over five hours. At the airport, reporters shouted questions to Putin about civilian casualties and a possible ceasefire, but he did not answer.

Zelenskyy's Gotta Finish The Deal

Later, in a Fox News interview, Trump said progress on Ukraine now depended on Zelenskyy. He rated the summit “ten out of ten,” said the likelihood of an agreement was high, and urged greater European involvement. He withheld details on an unresolved key issue, saying someone else would announce it soon.

Trump also repeated Putin’s comment that the U.S. is now “hot as a gun” compared to “dead” last year, and that Putin believed the 2020 U.S. election was “rigged” due to mail-in voting.

On trade, Trump said he was not considering higher tariffs for China and would review the Russia tariff situation in two to three weeks, given the positive atmosphere of the summit.

Original Author: Raushan Korzhumbekova