The president of the United States, Donald Trump, and his counterpart from Russia, Vladimir Putin, concluded this Friday in Alaska their bilateral summit with a brief press conference in which they did not announce any agreement on peace in Ukraine.
“There is no agreement until there is an agreement”, Trump said in his speech, after a meeting of almost three hours at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base and then retire without giving space for press questions.
The American president described the meeting as “extremely productive” and He said that “many points agreed,” although he acknowledged that there are still “some” pending issues.
“There are only a few who were unsolved. Some are not significant; one is probably the most important, but we have a good opportunity to solve them. We have not arrived there, but we have a good opportunity to achieve it,” Trump said.
During your speech, Trump added that when he left the conference he would call the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenskiand that would also inform about what happened to NATO leaders.
“I will call NATO within a while, I will call the people I consider appropriate and, of course, I will call President Zelenski to inform them about today’s meeting. Ultimately, the decision depends on them,” Trump said.
For its part, Putin has considered that the meeting has been developed in a “respectful, constructive and mutual environment” and that the negotiations have been “very thorough” and “useful.” “A personal meeting between the heads of State (of the United States and Russia) was long expected,” he said.
He also recognized that the conflict with Ukraine has been one of the “central themes” of the meeting and has made it clear that To reach peace with kyiv “we need to eliminate all the roots, the main causes of that conflict.”
The Russian leader has put with condition for this “to consider all the legitimate concerns of Russia and restore a fair balance of security in Europe and in the world in general.”
On the other hand, he has sent a message to “kyiv and European capitals” to perceive the advances with the United States “constructively” and “do not hinder the process or try to use secret negotiations to provoke and torpedo the incipient progress.”
With a view to a second meeting
Although the summit did not conclude with a formal agreement, Trump warned that The United States will impose “economically severe” sanctions if substantial advance is not achieved in future negotiations.
He also advanced the possibility of a second summit that would include the Ukrainian president, with the aim of achieving a definitive solution to the conflict.
When he said goodbye, Trump thanked Putin with the tone and expressed his intention to meet again. The Russian leader took the opportunity to suggest that this should happen in Moscow.
This meeting was performed by experts as a relevant political gesture for Russia, which partially comes out of its international isolation without making previous concessions.
At the same time, Trump is presented as a potential “mediator to seek peace” in Ukraine, while the international community waits for the next steps after this initial dialogue.
The leaders of the United States and Russia did not have a face -to -face match since July 16, 2018 at a summit held in Helsinki (Finland).
