Trump speaks to Belarus leader ahead of Alaska summit with Putin
'Lukashenko and Trump held a telephone conversation,' said state news agency BELTA on social media, without providing further details.
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Al Arabiya
18 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
Putin, Trump sit down to discuss fate of Ukraine as summit gets underway
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met face-to-face in Alaska on Friday in a high-stakes meeting that could determine whether a ceasefire can be reached in the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two. Ahead of the summit, Trump greeted the Russian leader on a red carpet on the tarmac at a US Air Force base. The two shook hands warmly and touched each other on the arm before riding in Trump's limo to the summit site nearby. The two leaders sat silently with their respective delegations seated to the side in their first meeting since 2019. They were seated in front of a blue backdrop that had the words, 'Pursuing Peace' printed on it. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was not invited to the talks, and his European allies fear Trump might sell out Ukraine by essentially freezing the conflict with Russia and recognizing - if only informally - Russian control over one-fifth of Ukraine. Earlier, Trump sought to assuage such concerns as he boarded Air Force One, saying he would let Ukraine decide on any possible territorial swaps. 'I'm not here to negotiate for Ukraine, I'm here to get them at a table,' he said. Asked what would make the meeting a success, he told reporters: 'I want to see a ceasefire rapidly ... I'm not going to be happy if it's not today ... I want the killing to stop.' Trump was joined in his meeting with Putin by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's special envoy to Russia, Steve Witkoff. At a subsequent larger, bilateral meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and chief of staff Susie Wiles will also join Trump, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. The Russian officials accompanying Putin in the talks with the US delegation will be foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Trump hopes a truce in the 3-1/2-year-old war that Putin started will bring peace to the region as well as bolster his credentials as a global peacemaker worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. For Putin, the summit is already a big win that he can portray as evidence that years of Western attempts to isolate Russia have unraveled and that Moscow is retaking its rightful place at the top table of international diplomacy. Trump, who once said he would end Russia's war in Ukraine within 24 hours, conceded on Thursday it had proven a tougher task than he had expected. He said if Friday's talks went well, quickly arranging a second, three-way summit with Zelenskyy would be even more important than his encounter with Putin. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a three-way summit would be possible if the Alaska talks bore fruit, Interfax news agency reported. Peskov also said Friday's talks could last six to seven hours. Zelenskyy said the summit should open the way for a 'just peace' and three-way talks that included him, but added that Russia was continuing to wage war. A Russian ballistic missile earlier struck Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one person and wounding another. 'It's time to end the war, and the necessary steps must be taken by Russia. We are counting on America,' Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. 'Smart guy' Trump said before the summit that there is mutual respect between him and Putin. 'He is a smart guy, been doing it for a long time, but so have I ... We get along, there's a good respect level on both sides,' Trump said of Putin. He also welcomed Putin's decision to bring businesspeople to Alaska. 'But they're not doing business until we get the war settled,' he said, repeating a threat of 'economically severe' consequences for Russia if the summit goes badly. The United States has had internal discussions on using Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker vessels to support the development of gas and LNG projects in Alaska as one of the possible deals to aim for, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. One source acquainted with Kremlin thinking said there were signs Moscow could be ready to strike a compromise on Ukraine, given that Putin understood Russia's economic vulnerability and costs of continuing the war. Reuters has previously reported that Putin might be willing to freeze the conflict along the frontlines, provided there was a legally binding pledge not to enlarge NATO eastwards and to lift some Western sanctions. NATO has said Ukraine's future is in the alliance. Russia, whose war economy is showing strain, is vulnerable to further US sanctions - and Trump has threatened tariffs on buyers of Russian crude, primarily China and India. 'For Putin, economic problems are secondary to goals, but he understands our vulnerability and costs,' the Russian source said. Putin this week held out the prospect of something else he knows Trump wants - a new nuclear arms control accord to replace the last surviving one, which is due to expire in February. Common ground? The source familiar with Kremlin thinking said it looked as if the two sides had been able to find some common ground. 'Apparently, some terms will be agreed upon ... because Trump cannot be refused, and we are not in a position to refuse (due to sanctions pressure),' said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity. Putin has said he is open to a full ceasefire but that issues of verification must first be sorted out. One compromise could be a truce in the air war. Zelenskyy has ruled out formally handing Moscow any territory and is also seeking a security guarantee backed by the United States. Ukrainians who spoke to Reuters in central Kyiv on Friday were not optimistic about the summit. 'Nothing good will happen there, because war is war, it will not end. The territories - we're not going to give anything to anyone,' said Tetiana Harkavenko, a 65-year-old cleaner.
Asharq Al-Awsat
5 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Zelenskiy Says Alaska Summit Should Open Path to Ukraine-Russia-US Talks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it was important that Friday's Russia-US summit in Alaska opened up a path towards a "just peace", as well as substantive three-way talks between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and the United States. "It is time to end the war, and the necessary steps must be taken by Russia. We are counting on America," Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin were due to meet at a Cold War-era air force base in Alaska on Friday to discuss a ceasefire deal for Ukraine that the US sees as a possible way to end the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two. Trump said he would not negotiate on behalf of Ukraine in the meeting and would let Kyiv decide whether to engage in territorial swaps with Russia. "Indeed, high stakes. The key thing is that this meeting should open up a real path towards a just peace and a substantive discussion between leaders in a trilateral format – Ukraine, the United States, and the Russian side," Zelenskiy said. This week, Zelenskiy held a meeting with European leaders, and on Friday agreed with the French president to meet after the US-Russia summit.
Al Arabiya
5 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Trump says semiconductor tariffs coming soon
US President Donald Trump said Friday he plans to announce tariffs on steel and semiconductors in the coming weeks. 'I'll be setting tariffs next week and the week after, on steel and, I would say, chips. Chips and semiconductors, we'll be setting sometime next week, the week after,' Trump said onboard Air Force One as he headed to Alaska for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump said the levy rate would be 'lower at the beginning' but 'very high after a certain period of time,' as a way to encourage businesses to relocate operations to the United States. The president said his policy would prompt companies in key industries like automobiles and artificial intelligence to relocate in order to 'beat the tariffs,' which could be 200 or 300 percent. Trump has also said he would employ this strategy with pharmaceuticals. On August 6, Trump announced a 100 percent tariff on semiconductors from firms that do not invest in the United States. Trump has already instituted tariffs on steel, announcing an initial 25 percent levy that was later doubled to 50 percent.
