Donald Trump met Vladimir Putin face-to-face for a historic summit set to determine not only the trajectory of the war in Ukraine, but the fate of European security – but the results were a mystery when they emerged from more than three hours of talks.
“We’ve made some headway. So there’s no deal until there’s a deal. I will call up NATO in a little while. I will call up the various people that I think are appropriate. And I’ll, of course, call up President Zelensky and tell him about today’s meeting,” was how the US president summed up the encounter in anchorage.
He added: “ …we had an extremely productive meeting and many points were agreed to. There are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there. We didn’t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there”.
Neither Putin nor Trump used the word “ceasefire” in the short statements they made to the assembled media, before shaking hands and leaving the stage.
There was no sign of what the major sticking point could have been although Putin said that Trump had insisted on highlighting the importance of Ukraine’s security.
“ We’re convinced that in order to make the settlement lasting and long-term, we need to eliminate all the primary roots, the primary causes of that conflict. And we’ve said it multiple times, to consider all legitimate concerns of Russia and to reinstate a just balance of security in Europe and in the world on the whole. And I agree with President Trump, as he has said today, that naturally, the security of Ukraine should be ensured as well. Naturally, we are prepared to work on that. I would like to hope that the agreement that we’ve reached together will help us bring closer that goal,” the Russian leader said.
Landing on US soil in anchorage itself a huge diplomatic coup for the Russian president, who has been isolated from world events by his full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It was his first meeting with Mr Trump in seven years.
The leaders smiled broadly as they greeted each other under the din of fighter jets marking the moment with a fly-past.
Mr Trump deployed his signature handshake, yanking Putin close to him on the red carpet, but both appeared relaxed at the prospect of seven hours of talks.
They then sat silently with their respective delegations seated in front of a blue backdrop that had the words, “Pursuing Peace” printed on it.
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Mr Trump’s previous meetings with the Russian leader during his first term often left observers questioning the nature of the relationship, with Mr Trump taking Putin’s side over Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 US election at their 2018 Helsinki summit.
But the American president appeared to have learned from those previous experiences; the White House announced that the planned one-on-one meeting would become a three-on-three with Trump accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff.
As he headed to the summit aboard Air Force One, Mr Trump said he wanted the meeting to lead to a ceasefire in Ukraine and that he would not be unhappy if one did not emerge as a result of his talks with Putin.
