Plans for Putin-Trump Summit Shelved Days After Budapest Negotiations Proposed

Trump and Putin
Putin and Trump last met in August in the northern US state and the US president had indicated additional discussions would occur in the Hungarian capital

There are "no plans" for US President Donald Trump to meet Russian President Putin "in the immediate future", a administration representative has announced.

This past week the US president stated he and the Kremlin leader would conduct negotiations in Hungary's capital within two weeks to discuss the Ukraine conflict.

A planning session between America's top diplomat Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was planned for recently - but the White House said the two had had a "productive" discussion and that a meeting was not "required".

The administration declined to provide further information on the reason the negotiations had been put on hold.

Earlier Events

Trump had discussed a Hungarian meeting via telephone with the Russian leader, a just prior to hosting Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Certain accounts indicated his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "contentious discussion", with insiders suggesting the president had pushed him to relinquish extensive regions of eastern Ukraine as part of a deal with Russia.

However, on Monday the American president embraced a ceasefire proposal backed by Ukraine and European leaders to pause the war on the present positions.

"Freeze the lines in its current state," he said.

Russia has frequently resisted against pausing the existing front lines.

Moscow was solely focused on "permanent resolution", Lavrov commented on Tuesday, implying that pausing conflict would only amount to a short-term truce.

Political Perspectives

The "underlying reasons" of the conflict required resolution, the Russian diplomat emphasized, using Russian diplomatic language for a range of maximalist demands that include the recognition of complete Moscow control over the eastern region as well as the disarmament of the country – a non-starter for Ukraine and its EU supporters.

The Ukrainian president commented discussions about the current lines were the "commencement of dialogue" but that Russia was "doing everything" to evade negotiations.

He additionally stated the only topic that could make Moscow "pay attention" was that of the provision of distance-capable munitions to the Ukrainian military.

Weapons Discussions

Putin's unplanned conversation with Trump recently occurred before reports that the US was considering delivering long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that could theoretically target inside Russia.

Zelensky asserted it was the missile discussion that had forced Russia to enter into dialogue. The discussion regarding the weapons systems had turned out to be a "strong investment" in diplomacy", he remarked.

Richard Benson
Richard Benson

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