New York: US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have expressed optimism ahead of their meeting on Friday aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, a breakthrough that could also spare India from a looming 25 per cent US tariff on imports of Russian oil.
“I believe now he [Putin] is convinced that he’s going to make a deal,” Trump told Fox Radio on Thursday. “He’s going to make a deal.”
At the Kremlin, Putin told advisers that Trump was making “fairly vigorous and sincere efforts to halt hostilities, resolve the crisis, and reach agreements that serve the interests of all parties involved in this conflict.”
If the summit produces a peace agreement, India could avoid the oil tariff due to take effect on 27 August.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, will not attend the talks, which will be held at a US military base in Alaska. He was in London meeting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and the two leaders said in a joint statement that the Trump–Putin talks “present a viable chance to make progress as long as Putin takes action to prove he is serious about peace.”
Earlier this week, Zelensky briefed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on developments. According to the Ukrainian president’s office, they agreed that “everything concerning Ukraine must be decided with Ukraine’s participation. Other formats will not yield results.”
Trump stressed that it would ultimately be for Zelensky and Putin to finalize any agreement. He said his discussions with Putin would “set the table for the next meeting”, which would include Zelensky and possibly European leaders.
“The more important meeting will be the second meeting,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’re going to have a meeting with President Putin, President Zelensky, myself, and maybe we’ll bring some of the European leaders along, maybe not.”
After a videoconference on Wednesday with leaders from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Poland, who strongly back Ukraine, Trump received a tentative green light to proceed. The European leaders said they “welcome the efforts of President Trump towards ending Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and achieving a just and lasting peace and security for Ukraine,” but added that “meaningful negotiations can only take place in the context of a ceasefire or reduction of hostilities.”
While sounding upbeat, Trump said he would know “within the first five minutes” whether the talks would succeed. “If it’s a bad meeting, it’ll end very quickly. And if it’s a good meeting, we’re gonna end up getting peace in the pretty near future.” He earlier put the odds of failure at 25 per cent, and warned Putin on Wednesday of “very severe consequences” if the peace effort collapsed.
The summit is set to begin at 11:30 a.m. local time in Alaska (1 a.m. Saturday in India), Putin’s foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said. The leaders will start with one-on-one talks, followed by a meeting with senior officials, and then a working breakfast. They will hold a joint press conference afterwards.
Putin is seeking to expand the agenda beyond the Ukraine war to include the resumption of nuclear arms control talks and trade. “The aim is to establish long-term conditions for peace not only between our countries but also in Europe and indeed globally, especially if we proceed to subsequent stages involving agreements on strategic offensive arms control,” he told advisers, referring to the New START treaty, from which Russia withdrew in 2023.
Ushakov said the talks could also open the door to deeper economic cooperation. “An exchange of views on the further development of bilateral cooperation, including in the trade and economic spheres, is also expected. It is worth noting that this cooperation holds immense, yet regrettably underutilized, potential,” he noted. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Special Presidential Representative for Investment Kirill Dmitriev will be part of Putin’s delegation.