Trump says '25pc chance of failure' for Putin meeting

a day ago

US President Donald Trump insisted Thursday he would not be intimidated by Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the eve of a high-stakes summit and said Ukraine would be involved in any deal on its fate.Putin flies to Alaska on Friday at the invitation of Trump in his first visit to a Western country since he ordered the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has killed tens of thousands of people.As Russia made gains on the battlefield, the Kremlin said the two presidents planned to meet one-on-one, heightening fears of European leaders that Putin will cajole Trump into a settlement imposed on Ukraine.Trump insisted to reporters at the White House: "I am president, and he's not going to mess around with me.""I'll know within the first two minutes, three minutes, four minutes or five minutes...whether or not we're going to have a good meeting or a bad meeting," Trump said."And if it's a bad meeting, it'll end very quickly, and if it's a good meeting, we're going to end up getting peace in the pretty near future," said Trump, who gave the summit a one in four chance of failure.Trump has voiced admiration for Putin in the past and faced wide criticism after a 2018 summit in Helsinki where he appeared to accept the Russian's denials of US intelligence on Moscow's meddling in US elections.RTHK's Washington correspondent, Simon Marks, said Putin was keen to improve ties with the US."It is absolutely apparent from everything that we've heard from the Kremlin that the Russians are very interested in talking to the United States about improving Russia's frozen bilateral relationship with Washington," he told RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme "The Arctic is of particular interest to President Putin, who is likely to argue that there are economic cooperation possibilities for the two countries to embark upon together in that particular region and more broadly in terms of getting American investors once again back into the Russian market."Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not invited to the Alaska summit, which he has denounced as a reward to Putin, and has refused Trump's calls to surrender territory.Trump promised not to finalise any deal with Putin and said he hoped to hold a three-way summit with Zelensky, possibly immediately afterward in Alaska."The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that's going to be a meeting where they make a deal. And I don't want to use the word 'divvy' things up. But you know, to a certain extent, it's not a bad term," Trump told Fox News Radio.The talks are set to begin at 11:30am (1930 GMT) Friday, local time at the Elmendorf Air Force Base, a major US military installation in Alaska that has been crucial in monitoring Russia."This conversation will take place in a one-on-one format, naturally with the participation of interpreters," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow. (AFP/RTHK)

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3 hours ago

RTHK

Trump-Putin summit begins in Alaska

Trump-Putin summit begins in Alaska US President Donald Trump shakes hand with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Reuters US President Donald Trump greeted Russian President Vladimir Putin with a handshake ahead of a high-stakes summit in Alaska on Friday that could determine whether a ceasefire can be reached in the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two. Trump disembarked his plane, Air Force One, and awaited Putin on the tarmac. The two exchanged greetings while smiling. US F-22 aircraft were placed on either side of the red carpet. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, 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 recognising - if only informally - Russian control over one-fifth of Ukraine. 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 will be joined in his meeting with Putin by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's special envoy to Russia, Steve Witkoff, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said. At the subsequent larger, bilateral meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and chief of staff Susie Wiles will also join Trump, Leavitt said. The Russian officials accompanying Putin in the talks with the US delegation will be foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN. Trump hopes a truce in the 3-1/2-year-old war 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 unravelled and that Moscow is retaking its rightful place at the top table of international diplomacy. Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev described the pre-summit mood as "combative" and said the two leaders would discuss not only Ukraine but the full spectrum of bilateral relations, Russia's RIA news agency reported. 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 Zelensky 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. Zelenskiy 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," Zelensky wrote on the Telegram messaging app. (Reuters)

Tariffs on steel, semiconductors coming soon: Trump

RTHK

8 hours ago

RTHK

Tariffs on steel, semiconductors coming soon: Trump

Tariffs on steel, semiconductors coming soon: Trump Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he departs for Alaska to meet with Vladimir Putin. Photo: Reuters US President Donald Trump said on 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 on board 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 US. Trump has already instituted tariffs on steel, announcing an initial 25 percent levy that was later doubled to 50 percent. (AFP)

Why EU stance on Taiwan is a growing cause of concern for mainland China

South China Morning Post

9 hours ago

South China Morning Post

Why EU stance on Taiwan is a growing cause of concern for mainland China

This year marks half a century of formal diplomatic relations between China and the European Union as well as the 25th anniversary of the founding of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. In this, the fourth part of the series, Shi Jiangtao looks at how the issue of Taiwan is overshadowing the relationship. As mainland China and the European Union mark 50 years of diplomatic ties, there is growing concern in Beijing that the bloc may be undermining its one-China policy, as Brussels – and some individual member states in particular – expand informal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Historically viewed as a diplomatic formality, Taiwan has gained increasing prominence in Beijing's relations with the EU over the past decade. This has complicated Brussels' efforts to balance between economic partnerships with Beijing, strategic alignment with Washington, and growing unofficial trade and cultural ties with Taipei. After establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1975, all member states of the European Economic Community – the precursor to the EU – formally recognised Beijing as the sole legitimate government of China, a stance now mirrored by most of the world. This commitment, routinely reaffirmed in subsequent high-level exchanges, has long been seen by Beijing as a major diplomatic red line. It regards the issue as both a gauge of the EU's adherence to the one-China policy and a litmus test of Brussels' much-touted drive for strategic autonomy amid intensifying US-China rivalry. In recent years, however, several European countries have expanded ties with Taipei, seeking to actively reinterpret their one-China policy – distinguishing it from Beijing's one-China principle, even as Brussels has stepped up efforts to 'de-risk' its relationship with mainland China.