Arrangements for Trump-Putin Summit Shelved Shortly After Budapest Talks Suggested

Trump and Putin
Putin and Trump last met in late summer in Alaska and the American leader had said additional discussions would occur in the Hungarian capital

Currently exist "no arrangements" for US President Donald Trump to confer with Russia's Putin "in the immediate future", a White House official has announced.

This past week the US president indicated he and the Russian president would hold talks in Hungary's capital in the coming fortnight to discuss the war in Ukraine.

A initial discussion between US Secretary of State Secretary Rubio and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov was planned for recently - but the administration said the two had had a "positive" call and that a face-to-face session was not "needed".

The White House did not share further information on why the talks had been delayed.

Earlier Events

The US president had discussed a Budapest summit via telephone with the Russian leader, a just prior to meeting Ukraine's President Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Certain accounts indicated his meeting with the Ukrainian leader had been a "shouting match", with insiders claiming Trump had pressured him to relinquish large areas of eastern Ukraine as part of a agreement with Moscow.

Yet, on this week the American president supported a truce plan endorsed by Kyiv and EU officials to halt the war on the current front line.

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

Moscow has consistently objected against halting the current line of contact.

Moscow was only interested in "long-term, sustainable peace", Lavrov said on Tuesday, indicating that freezing the front line would only amount to a short-term truce.

Political Perspectives

The "underlying reasons" of the conflict demanded attention, the Russian diplomat said, using Kremlin shorthand for a range of maximalist demands that involve the recognition of full Russian sovereignty over the eastern region as well as the military reduction of Ukraine – a impossible condition for Ukraine and its Western allies.

The Ukrainian president stated talks regarding the battle positions were the "start of negotiations" but that Moscow was "employing all tactics" to evade negotiations.

He additionally stated the only topic that could make Moscow "take notice" was that of the provision of extended-range arms to Ukraine.

Strategic Factors

The Russian president's unplanned conversation with Trump recently occurred before speculation that the United States was planning to provide extended-range cruise missiles to Ukraine that could possibly hit Russian territory.

The Ukrainian leader asserted it was the Tomahawks issue that had pressured the Kremlin to engage in discussion. The conversation concerning the weapons systems had proven to be a "strong investment" in negotiations", he commented.

Sean Keith
Sean Keith

A tech entrepreneur and cloud computing expert with over a decade of experience in digital transformation strategies.