US President Donald Trump’s hopes for an early meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine have hit obstacles. On Monday, CNN reported that the preparatory meeting of foreign ministers, which was supposed to take place this week, postponed. TASR informs about it according to a Reuters report.
- Meeting of Foreign Ministers Rubio and Lavrov postponed.
- The reason for the postponement of the meeting was not immediately clear.
- Trump and Putin planned a summit in Budapest to end the war.
- The telephone discussion between Rubio and Lavrov was described as constructive.
- Trump is pushing for direct talks between Ukraine and Russia.
After last week’s phone call with Putin, Trump announced that they had agreed on a joint meeting in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, which could take place within two weeks. Following this, the American Minister of Foreign Affairs Marco Rubio and Sergey Lavrov were supposed to meet this week.
However, the planned ministerial meeting, considered a key preparatory step for this year’s second summit between US and Russian leaders, will not take place – at least not yet. said a White House official cited by CNN. The reason for the postponement of the meeting was not immediately clear, but one of the station’s sources said that Rubio and Lavrov expressed different expectations regarding the possible end of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The heads of diplomacy spoke on the phone on Monday about “next steps”, as stated by the US State Department. The Kremlin described this conversation as constructive.
However, a source quoted by CNN said that American officials felt after the phone call that Russia’s position had not sufficiently evolved beyond its maximalist demands. Therefore, according to the source, Rubio is not yet likely to recommend that the meeting between Putin and Trump take place next week. But he could talk to Lavrov again this week.
Since returning to the White House earlier this year, Trump has sought a quick end to the war in Ukraine, while pushing for a series of direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials. The US and Russian presidents last met in person more than two months ago in Alaska. Their three-hour meeting ended without an agreement, but both leaders spoke of “progress”. Trump then repeatedly called on both Kiev and Moscow to immediately stop the war.
