Why Trump and Putin chose Alaska for their meeting – DW – 08/14/2025
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Int'l Business Times
19 minutes ago
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Putin-Trump Summit: What Each Side Wants
The US and Russian presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are to meet at a US air base in Alaska on Friday for talks on the Ukraine war. Expectations are high for the first summit between sitting US and Russian presidents in more than four years, but Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart in their visions on how to end the conflict. It will be Putin's first trip to a Western country since launching his invasion in February 2022, as well as his first US visit in 10 years. Here is a look at what each side hopes to achieve from the talks: For Putin, who has faced years of isolation from the West since the invasion, the summit is an opportunity to press Russia's hardline demands for ending the conflict. In a draft peace plan published in June, Russia called on Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions that Moscow claimed to annex in 2022. Ukraine has rejected the idea. Russia has also called on Ukraine to halt its military mobilisation, abandon its NATO ambitions, and for Western countries to immediately stop weapon supplies -- something critics say amounts to capitulation. In addition to territory, Russia wants Ukraine to ensure the "rights and freedoms" of the Russian-speaking population and to prohibit what it calls the "glorification of Nazism". It also wants Western sanctions lifted. Ukraine says Russia's allegations of Nazism are absurd and that it already guarantees rights to Russian speakers. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not scheduled to take part in the summit, but has said there can be no peace deal without its involvement. He has called the meeting a "personal victory" for Putin. Ukraine has called for an unconditional ceasefire on land, sea and sky as a prerequisite to peace talks. It wants both sides to release all prisoners of war and demanded the return of Ukrainian children it says Russia illegally kidnapped. Ukraine says Russia has forcibly transferred thousands of Ukrainian children into areas under its control since the war began, often adopting them into Russian families and assigning them Russian citizenship. Russia rejects the kidnapping allegations but acknowledges that thousands of children are on its territory. Ukraine says any deal must include security guarantees to prevent Russia from attacking again, and that there should be no restrictions on the number of troops it can deploy on its territory. It says sanctions on Russia can only be lifted gradually and that there should be a way of reimposing them if needed. Trump promised he would end the war within "24 hours" after taking office in January. But eight months on, and even after repeated calls with Putin and several visits to Russia by US envoy Steve Witkoff, he has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin. The summit is his first opportunity to broker a deal in person. The US president, author of the book "Trump: The Art of the Deal" said on Wednesday that Russia would face "very severe consequences" if it did not halt its offensive. The US leader initially said there would be some "land swapping going on" at the talks, but appeared to walk back after speaking with European leaders on Wednesday. Trump has said he would "like to see a ceasefire very, very quickly". But the White House has played down expectations of a breakthrough, describing it as a "listening exercise" for the former reality TV star. "If the first one goes okay, we'll have a quick second one," Trump said, hinting Zelensky could take part in a subsequent summit. Despite providing military support for Ukraine and hosting millions of Ukrainian refugees, European leaders have been sidelined from the peace talks that may affect the region's security architecture in the future. European representatives were neither invited to the past three meetings between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Istanbul, nor to the Russia-US talks in Riyadh in February. In a statement last week, the leaders of Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Finland and the EU Commission warned there could be no meaningful peace without Ukraine's participation. "Territorial questions concerning Ukraine can be, and will be, negotiated only by the Ukrainian president," French President Emmanuel Macron said after speaking with Trump on Wednesday. Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer have signalled they are willing to deploy peacekeepers in Ukraine once the fighting ends, an idea Russia has vehemently rejected.
Int'l Business Times
19 minutes ago
- Int'l Business Times
Desperate Myanmar Villagers Scavenge For Food As Hunger Bites
People in western Myanmar have been driven to scavenging for bamboo shoots, as humanitarian workers warn a wartime blockade and aid cutbacks led by Washington have caused hunger cases to surge. "Another day has gone, and I have to struggle again for another day," fruit vendor Kyaw Win Shein told AFP in the town of Mrauk U in Myanmar's Rakhine state. "It is getting worse day by day," the 60-year-old, whose business is faltering as prices rise and incomes drop -- a grim equation driving others to scour the countryside for sustenance. Rakhine state -- a riverine slice of coastal Myanmar bordering Bangladesh -- has witnessed intense suffering in Myanmar's civil war, triggered by a 2021 coup deposing the democratic government. As the military fights an ethnic armed group, it has blockaded the territory -- throttling supplies to its estimated population of 2.5 million. The impoverished state has long been a focus of international aid organisations, but worldwide cutbacks spearheaded by US President Donald Trump's "America First" freeze on humanitarian funding have forced them to retreat. The World Food Programme (WFP) -- which received nearly half its 2024 donations from the United States -- warned last week that 57 percent of families in central Rakhine are now unable to meet basic food needs. The figure had risen from just 33 percent in December. "A deadly combination of conflict, blockades, and funding cuts is driving a dramatic rise in hunger and malnutrition," the WFP said. In northern Rakhine areas such as Mrauk U -- where conflict complicates data collection -- WFP warned the situation is "much worse". Residents said fertiliser is scarce, reducing crop yields and making produce unaffordable, driving people to desperate measures in a tightening spiral of misery. "I am not the only one who has difficulties," said fruit vendor Kyaw Win Shein. "Everyone is the same." The village of Ponnagyun is a short distance from the state capital Sittwe, at the mouth of a delta opening onto the Bay of Bengal. Rakhine cuisine is famed for its fresh, simply cooked seafood, and fish is still on sale in markets. But people have no cash to buy it. "People are starving in my village," said one resident who runs a Ponnagyun payphone shop, but asked to remain anonymous for security reasons. "People find and eat bamboo shoots mostly," he said. "People can eat it, but it's not nutritious." He said only two aid handouts reached their community in the past year. The conflict blockade is so effective that currency notes are not leaving the state to be replaced with new ones for circulation, and instead are left crumbling from wear and tear in the pockets of customers and vendors. "The commodity prices are really high," said 64-year-old Mrauk U resident Hla Paw Tun. "Many people are selling, but few are buying," he said. "We have been struggling to survive day by day." Rakhine has long been wracked by civil conflict -- the site of alleged military atrocities against the resident Rohingya minority around 2017, which some countries have deemed a genocide. More than one million Rohingya now live in Bangladeshi border camps -- and the UN said last month a massive new influx had seen 150,000 arrivals over the previous 18 months. Meanwhile, nearly half a million people remain displaced inside Rakhine. Among them is 49-year-old Hla Aye, who fled her village for Mrauk U when two bombs fell near her house. She set up as a shopkeeper, but that business quickly failed in Rakhine's hostile wartime economy. Still, she believes, her struggles may not be over yet. "I have no idea how the future will be and if it will be more difficult," she said. Nearly half of the World Food Programme's 2024 donations came from the United States AFP
Int'l Business Times
an hour ago
- Int'l Business Times
Putin Hails North Korean Troops As 'Heroic' In Letter To Kim
Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed North Korean troops sent to fight in Ukraine as "heroic" in a letter to Kim Jong Un, North Korean state media reported Friday. In a letter marking the anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese rule, Putin recalled how Soviet Red Army units and North Korean forces fought together to end Japan's colonial occupation. "The bonds of militant friendship, goodwill and mutual aid which were consolidated in the days of the war long ago remain solid and reliable even today," Putin said in a letter revealed by North Korean state media. "This was fully proved by the heroic participation of the DPRK soldiers in liberating the territory of Kursk Region from the Ukrainian occupationists," he said, according to news agency KCNA. "The Russian people will keep forever the memories of their bravery and self-sacrifice." Putin added that the two countries would continue to "act jointly and effectively defend their sovereignty and make a significant contribution to establishing a just and multi-polarised world order." Russia and North Korea have been forging increasingly closer ties, with the two countries signing a mutual defence pact last year, when Putin visited the reclusive state. In April, North Korea confirmed for the first time that it had deployed a contingent of its soldiers to the front line in Ukraine, alongside Russian troops. South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have said Pyongyang sent more than 10,000 soldiers to Russia's Kursk region in 2024, along with artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems. Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, Seoul has said. The letter from Putin came alongside a visit by a Russian delegation to Pyongyang, where the speaker of the Duma thanked Kim for sending "excellent soldiers" to Ukraine, KCNA reported. Vyacheslav Volodin's delegation arrived Thursday and was received by a military honour guard for a visit marking "the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation". Volodin thanked Kim for "dispatching excellent soldiers to the Kursk liberation operations for driving out the Ukrainian aggressors", according to KCNA. He added that Russia would never forget the North Korean troops "who fought at the cost of their lives in Russia." Kim, meanwhile, said the delegation's visit would promote the "development of the DPRK-Russia relations already on a new level." He also mentioned that he had a phone call with Putin two days ago, agreeing to expanded bilateral cooperation and "closer contact and communication between the state leaderships." The call came three days ahead of Friday's summit between Putin and Trump, the first between a sitting US and Russian president since 2021, as Trump seeks to broker an end to Russia's more than three-year war in Ukraine. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week AFP
