A highly anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday yielded no agreement to resolve or pause Moscow’s war in Ukraine, though both leaders described the talks as productive.
During a brief appearance before the media following the nearly three-hour meeting in Alaska, the two leaders said they had made progress on unspecified issues. But they offered no details and took no questions, with the normally loquacious Trump ignoring shouted questions from reporters.
“We’ve made some headway,” Trump said, standing in front of a backdrop that read, “Pursuing Peace.”
“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” he added.
The talks did not initially appear to have produced meaningful steps toward a ceasefire in the deadliest conflict in Europe in 80 years, a goal Trump had set ahead of the summit.
But simply sitting down face-to-face with the US president represented a victory for Putin, who had been ostracised by Western leaders since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Following the summit, Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he would hold off on imposing tariffs on China for buying Russian oil after making progress with Putin. He has targeted India, another major buyer of Russian crude, with an additional 25 per cent tariff on US imports.
“Because of what happened today, I think I don’t have to think about that now,” Trump said of Chinese tariffs. “I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don’t have to think about that right now.”
Trump has also threatened sanctions on Moscow but has thus far not followed through, even after Putin ignored a Trump-imposed ceasefire deadline earlier this month.
(Reuters)
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