US President Donald Trump has labeled his forthcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska as a possible lead-in to a second, three-way summit in which serious negotiations on the Ukraine conflict would occur.
The leaders are set to gather on Friday at a US air base in Anchorage, where they will be holding talks with the intent of ending the war in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine is not included in this initial gathering, although Trump did tease that a meeting including Zelenskyy, which comes after, could be held if initial meetings are successful.
It's setting up the second meeting. The second meeting will be highly, highly important, because that's going to be a meeting where they cut a deal," Trump said in an interview with Fox News Radio on Thursday. He went on, "And I don't want to use the word 'divvy' things up. But you know, to a certain degree, it's not a bad word, okay?
The exclusion of Zelenskyy and the recent upsurge in Russian military activity have increased the fears among Europeans that any agreement might require tough concessions to Ukraine. While Trump previously indicated that some "land swapping" would take place, he seemed to partially recant those comments after talking with European leaders although he did not entirely exclude territorial swaps.
Trump put the chance of the Alaska summit failing at 25 percent. Still, he spoke positively of Putin's willingness to talk: "He's, he really, I believe now, he's convinced that he's going to make a deal, he's going to make a deal. I think he's going to, and we're going to find out."
Earlier, Putin admitted that the US was taking "genuine efforts" to bring an end to the war and suggested that Moscow and Washington could seek a nuclear arms treaty as part of wider peace initiatives. Russia and the US are estimated by the Federation of American Scientists to have about 4,309 and 3,700 nuclear warheads, respectively, with China following at an estimated 600.
Trump also said he has three possible locations for a second meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy, though he emphasized that a second meeting is not in the cards: "Depending on what happens with my meeting, I'm going to be calling up President Zelenskyy, and let's get him over to wherever we're going to meet."
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed that establishing an overall peace would involve more long-term talks: "To get to a peace, I think we all understand there's going to have to be some discussion about security assurances. There's going to have to be some discussion about. territorial disputes and claims, and what they're fighting about," he explained to journalists.
Rubio also added that the administration would like to stop fighting to enable these talks to take place, but ultimately leave the ultimate agreement to Ukraine and Russia: "We're going to do everything we can to achieve one, but ultimately it'll be up to Ukraine and Russia to agree to one."
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