The White House said on October 21 that a meeting between Trump and Putin was not planned “in the near future,” although the American president had previously announced it in Budapest.
The journalist asked Trump whether his meeting with Putin was canceled or postponed, and whether this affects his decision to send long-range Tomahawk winged aircraft to Ukraine or not.
“No. I don't want to waste the meeting. I don't want to waste time, so we'll see what happens,” the US president replied.
Trump went on to say that he was able to get “all these great deals, peace agreements” in other wars.
Regarding the Russian war against Ukraine, Trump called on the parties to “stop at the front line, withdraw troops and go home.”
“Because two countries are killing each other. These two countries are losing 5-7 thousand soldiers a week. So we’ll see what happens next. We haven’t made a decision yet,” the American president emphasized.
Context
Trump announced on October 16 that he intends to meet with Putin in Hungary. He did not announce the date of the summit, but noted that negotiations at the level of foreign ministers were planned before this.
On October 20, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Minister Sergei Lavrov had a telephone conversation. The parties discussed steps to end the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin described the conversation as a “constructive discussion” during which “likely concrete steps to implement the agreements” were discussed.
Reuters, citing sources, wrote that the meeting of Russian and American diplomats will take place on October 23.
On October 21, CNN reported that the meeting between Trump and Putin may not take place as planned and that the meeting between Rubio and Lavrov was also expected to not take place this week. The Russian Foreign Ministry, in response to CNN's news, stated that “it is impossible to postpone what has not been agreed upon.”
On the same day, a senior White House official said that a meeting between Trump and Putin was not planned “in the near future.” Also, according to him, Lavrov and Rubio do not plan to meet in person. The change in plans for another summit between Trump and Putin in Budapest was prompted by Russia's refusal to back down from its maximalist positions on what is needed to end its war against Ukraine, Politico emphasized.
Moscow believes that a peace agreement must be concluded before a ceasefire in the war. According to the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, calls for a truce right now, without eliminating the “root causes of the Ukrainian conflict” (as Lavrov calls the Russian war against Ukraine), allegedly contradict what Putin and Trump agreed on in Alaska.
Russia has long called for addressing the “root causes” of the war against Ukraine, arguing that its growing integration with Europe and desire to join NATO pose an existential threat to Moscow, Politico pointed out.
