Putin-Trump meet: ‘Progress’ but no Ukraine deal — Alaska Summit in 10 key points

Russian President Vladimir Putin met US President Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday to discuss the war in Ukraine. After the “historic” meeting, Putin said he wants the “root cause of the conflict” to be eliminated. Meanwhile, Trump said he and Putin didn’t reach a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. “There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump said.

Both Trump and Putin seemed to offer a vague account of the Alaska meeting that stretched for around two-and-a-half hours. Here are top 10 key takeaways from Alaska Summit and Putin-Trump press conference after Alaska summit:

1. Putin minced no words in acknowledging that the US-Russia relations fell to the “lowest point” since the Cold War. “Sooner or later, we had to amend the situation to move on from confrontation to dialogue…,” he said.

2. Putin said that the meeting in Alaska wasn’t just historic but “a necessity” after four difficult years of no bilateral meeting. He said the agreements reached today might just be the first step on the path to peace in Ukraine.

3. “We are sincerely interested to end conflict. But all root causes must be eliminated, and all of Russia’s concerns must be taken into account ,” Putin said in the joint press conference with Trump on Friday.

4. Putin said, “Today’s agreements will help us restart pragmatic relations.” He thanked Trump for his “friendly” tone and “results-oriented” approach. 

5. Echoing Trump’s remarks, Putin said he believes that the Ukraine conflict would not have happened if trump was president. Trump has maintained that the war in Ukraine, which began during Biden administration, would not have started had he be the President at the time.

6. Donald Trump said,” There’s no deal until there’s a deal…” He said he had “an extremely productive meeting” with Putin and “many points were agreed to.” But “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,” Trump said.

7. ‘Progress’ but no Ukraine deal: Trump, however, contended that “we really made some great progress.” He said, “I believe we had a very productive meeting. There were many, many points that we agreed on… There’s no deal until there’s a deal.” 

8. Trump said nothing about the prospect of a trilateral summit between himself, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which he had said beforehand would be his ultimate objective. He did say he would get on the telephone with Zelensky.

“I will call up NATO… I’ll of course call up [Ukraine] President Zelensky and tell him about today’s meeting… We really made some great progress,” he said.

9.  Trump and Putin didn’t reach a ceasefire in Ukraine or peace agreement. But the ice is broken and more meetings are coming. Following their high-profile meeting in Alaska, Vladimir Putin invited US President Donald Trump to hold next roundof meeting in Moscow. As Trump mused about a second meeting, Putin smiled and said in English: “Next time in Moscow.”

10. Earlier, as Putin met Trump on the tarmac of an air base in Alaska, US military might was on display with a B-2 stealth bomber flying overhead the two Presidents.