Trump-Putin summit ends with no ceasefire in Ukraine war
During a brief appearance before the media after Friday's nearly three-hour meeting in Alaska, the two leaders said they had made progress on unspecified issues. But they offered no details and took no questions, with the normally loquacious Trump ignoring shouted questions from reporters.
'We've made some headway,' Trump said, standing in front of a backdrop that read, 'Pursuing Peace'.
'There's no deal until there's a deal,' he added.
The talks did not initially appear to have produced meaningful steps towards a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, the deadliest conflict in Europe in 80 years, a goal Trump had set ahead of the summit.
But simply sitting down face-to-face with the US president represented a victory for Putin, who had been ostracised by Western leaders since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
After the summit, Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity that he would hold off on imposing tariffs on China for buying Russian oil after making progress with Putin. He did not mention India, another major buyer of Russian crude, which has been slapped with a total 50% tariff on US imports that includes a 25% penalty for the imports from Russia.
'Because of what happened today, I think I don't have to think about that now,' Trump said of Chinese tariffs. 'I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don't have to think about that right now.'
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