New York, Aug 16 US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday declared a major breakthrough after three hours of talks in Anchorage, Alaska.
“I hope the agreement we have reached will help us get closer to that goal (finding a solution) and pave the way for peace in Ukraine. I think we had a very productive meeting. There were many issues on which we (President Putin and I) agreed,” Trump said.
The agreement will also be important for India as the US has announced a 25 per cent punitive duty on India for buying Russian oil.
However, neither leader has yet given any details of the agreement or said whether there will be a ceasefire or not.
“There are some major agreements that we haven’t reached yet, but we have made some progress. An agreement is probably the most important, but we have a very good chance of reaching that. We haven’t reached it, but we have a very good chance of getting there,” Trump said cryptically.
“I will call NATO and all the people I think are appropriate, and, of course, I will call President (Volodymyr) Zelensky to let him know about today’s meeting,” he added.
Going into the summit, Trump said he would not negotiate on Ukraine’s behalf, and it was up to Zelensky to reach an agreement.
“So until there is an agreement, there is no agreement,” he said at a press conference.
The two presidents did not answer reporters’ questions.
“We have to improve the situation in order to move from confrontation to negotiation,” Putin said.
“No matter how strange it may sound under these circumstances, we (Russia and Ukraine) have the same roots and what is happening is a tragedy and a terrible wound for us. Therefore, the country is sincerely interested in ending it,” he said.
Replacing the three phases previously scheduled at the beginning of the summit, they went straight to the second phase. This phase was attended by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yudi Ushakova, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
It did not seem that the third phase was lunch with officials. Trump welcomed Putin on the red carpet and they continued talking in a friendly manner as they got into the limousine.
