Alaska Summit Power Play: Putin Ally's Surprise Nuclear U-turn Gives Trump Diplomatic Edge
/ Aug 15, 2025, 06:17AM IST
Iran signals a major diplomatic shift, preparing to resume nuclear talks with the U.S. after stalled negotiations. Sources suggest Tehran views dialogue as essential to avoid escalation, while the U.S. has maintained a firm stance on Iran's nuclear program. Recent tensions in the region have heightened focus on upcoming international diplomacy.#Iran #USIran #NuclearTalks #Trump #Khamenei #MiddleEast #Diplomacy #GlobalNews #Geopolitics #IranNuclearProgram
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Indian Express
11 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Trump and Putin to meet in Alaska for high-stakes summit on Russia-Ukraine war
US President Donald Trump is meeting face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday for a high-stakes summit that could determine not only the trajectory of the war in Ukraine but also the fate of European security. The meeting between the two leaders is scheduled for 11:30 am Alaska time (3:30 pm ET), followed by a joint press conference. They will convene at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, which is home to around 30,000 service members, their families, and civilian staff. The base lies roughly 700 miles from the Russian border. The sit-down offers Trump a chance to prove to the world that he is both a master dealmaker and a global peacemaker. He and his allies have cast him as a heavyweight negotiator who can find a way to bring the slaughter to a close — something he used to boast he could do quickly. For Putin, a summit with Trump offers a long-sought opportunity to try to negotiate a deal that would cement Russia's gains, block Kyiv's bid to join the NATO military alliance and eventually pull Ukraine back into Moscow's orbit. There are significant risks for Trump. By bringing Putin onto US soil, the president is giving Russia's leader the validation he desires after his ostracization following his invasion of Ukraine 3 1/2 years ago. The exclusion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from the summit also deals a heavy blow to the West's policy of 'nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine' and invites the possibility that Trump could agree to a deal that Ukraine does not want. Any success is far from assured, especially as Russia and Ukraine remain far apart in their demands for peace. Putin has long resisted any temporary ceasefire, linking it to a halt in Western arms supplies and a freeze on Ukraine's mobilization efforts — conditions rejected by Kyiv and its Western allies. Trump said that even more important than his summit with Putin would be a subsequent meeting that also includes Zelenskyy, something he suggested could even happen before he departs Alaska — a possibility that Russia hasn't agreed to. Trump said in a Fox News radio interview Thursday that he didn't know if they would get 'an immediate ceasefire' but he wanted a broad peace deal done quickly. That seemingly echoes Putin's longtime argument that Russia favors a comprehensive deal to end the fighting, reflecting its demands, not a temporary halt to hostilities. The Kremlin said Trump and Putin will first sit down for a one-on-one discussion, followed by the two delegations meeting and talks continuing over 'a working breakfast.' They are then expected to hold a joint press conference. In the days leading up to the summit, set for a military base near Anchorage, Trump described it as 'really a feel-out meeting.' But he's also warned of 'very severe consequences' for Russia if Putin doesn't agree to end the war and said that though Putin might bully other leaders, 'He's not going to mess around with me.' Trump's repeated suggestions that a deal would likely involve 'some swapping of territories' — which disappointed Ukraine and European allies — along with his controversial history with Putin have some skeptical about what kind of agreement can be reached. Ian Kelly, a retired career foreign service officer who served as the US ambassador to Georgia during the Obama and first Trump administrations, said he sees 'no upside for the US, only an upside for Putin.' 'The best that can happen is nothing, and the worst that can happen is that Putin entices Trump into putting more pressure on Zelenskyy,' Kelly said. George Beebe, the former director of the CIA's Russia analysis team who is now affiliated with the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said there's a serious risk of blown expectations or misunderstandings for a high-level summit pulled together so quickly. 'That said, I doubt President Trump would be going into a meeting like this unless there had been enough work done behind the scenes for him to feel that there is a decent chance that something concrete will come out of it,' Beebe said. Zelenskyy has time and again cast doubts on Putin's willingness to negotiate in good faith. His European allies, who've held increasingly urgent meetings with US leaders over the past week, have stressed the need for Ukraine to be involved in any peace talks. Political commentators in Moscow, meanwhile, have relished that the summit leaves Ukraine and its European allies on the sidelines. Dmitry Suslov, a pro-Kremlin voice, expressed hope that the summit will 'deepen a trans-Atlantic rift and weaken Europe's position as the toughest enemy of Russia.' European leaders who consulted with Trump this week said the president assured them he would prioritize trying to achieve a ceasefire. Foreign governments will be watching closely to see how Trump reacts to Putin, likely gauging what the interaction might mean for their own dealings with the US president, who has eschewed traditional diplomacy for his own transactional approach to relationships. The meeting comes as the war has caused heavy losses on both sides and drained resources. Ukraine has held on far longer than some initially expected since the February 2022 invasion, but it is straining to hold off Russia's much larger army, grappling with bombardments of its cities and fighting for every inch on the over 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) front line. Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a senior fellow and director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, said US antagonists like China, Iran and North Korea will be paying attention to Trump's posture to see 'whether or not the threats that he continues to make against Putin are indeed credible.' 'Or, if has been the past track record, he continues to back down and look for ways to wiggle out of the kind of threats and pressure he has promised to apply,' said Kendall-Taylor, who is also a former senior intelligence officer. While some have objected to the location of the summit, Trump has said he thought it was 'very respectful' of Putin to come to the US instead of a meeting in Russia. Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin Moscow-based analyst, observed that the choice of Alaska as the summit's venue 'underlined the distancing from Europe and Ukraine.' Being on a military base allows the leaders to avoid protests and meet more securely, but the location carries its own significance because of its history and location. Alaska, which the US purchased from Russia in 1867, is separated from Russia at its closest point by just 3 miles (less than 5 kilometers) and the international date line. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was crucial to countering the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It continues to play a role today, as planes from the base still intercept Russian aircraft that regularly fly into US airspace.
Time of India
11 minutes ago
- Time of India
‘Go Home Putin, Get Lost Trump': Alaskans Wave Ukrainian Flags Protesting Historic Peace Summit
/ Aug 15, 2025, 11:01AM IST As Anchorage prepared to host a high-stakes summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the streets filled with noise, colour, and conviction. Hours before the leaders were due to meet, hundreds of Alaskans gathered at one of the city's busiest intersections, waving Ukrainian flags and holding up hand-painted signs. The protest pulsed with music from a marching band, cheers from passing cars, and the rhythmic chants of demonstrators calling for justice in Ukraine.#TrumpPutinSummit #AlaskaSummit #UkraineWar #TrumpVsBolton #PutinInUSA #USRussiaRelations #BreakingNews #Geopolitics #GlobalTensions #NATOVSRussia #AnchorageSummit #WorldPolitics
Time of India
25 minutes ago
- Time of India
Trump and Putin in Alaska: How a strange relationship took shape
The curiously personal relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin has taken many bizarre turns from the last time they were alone in a room together without witnesses. Their first summit meeting in seven years kicks off with the surprising and symbolically significant choice of Alaska as the venue for talks between the US and Russian presidents. As they meet to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin's suggestion to hold it in a US state that once belonged to Russia hints at Putin's sly strategy to appeal directly to Trump's real-estate instincts and seal a grand bargain cutting others out. Over the years, Putin has been the object of fascination for Trump, who praised his 'genius' when Russia invaded its neighbor in 2022. The two appear to enjoy an easy, even playful rapport (Putin often refers to his American counterpart simply as 'Donald'). by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Undo In his first term, Trump made no secret of his admiration for the strongman leader and has spoken to him at least six times since returning to the White House. "Putin went through a hell of a lot with me," he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in their infamous Oval Office clash. For his part, Putin is known for switching from mischief to menace in a flash. After his 'little green men' annexed Crimea in 2014, his answer to a pensioner asking him to take Alaska back was typical of his trolling style: 'Why would you need Alaska?' he said. 'It's cold out there as well. Let's not get worked up about it.' Live Events The world has changed dramatically since the calamitous 2018 summit in Helsinki, when Trump sided with Putin against his own officials on Russian election meddling in the 2016 presidential vote. Second-term Trump is a visibly more confident president and he's grown frustrated with Putin's delay tactics. Putin has been in power for more than a quarter of a century but the protracted conflict in Ukraine has dented his air of invincibility. If the memorable moments from their past encounters are any measure, Friday's summit promises compelling political drama whatever the outcome. Here are some of the highlights. Hamburg, Germany: Group of 20, July 2017 The biggest issue hanging over Trump and Putin's first major meeting was the role Russia played in interfering with the 2016 election that polls showed Hillary Clinton was favored to win. US intelligence agencies saw evidence of a Russian disinformation campaign aimed at boosting Trump, who was irritated that the legitimacy of his victory was being questioned. Moscow officials said Trump accepted Putin's denial of any Russian role. Russia's incursions into Ukraine, which at the time were confined to Crimea and the eastern part of the country, were a minor topic in a bilateral that lasted more than than two hours. Things took an unusual turn at the dinner for leaders and their spouses at the Elbphilharmonie concert hall on the banks of the Elbe River. At the end of the meal, Trump walked over to Putin and the two spoke informally for an hour. No notes. No aides. The only record of this conversation came from the Kremlin's Russian interpreter. Trump later criticized reports that characterized this second encounter as secretive, although it was only disclosed after other dinner participants recounted what they observed. Da Nang, Vietnam: APEC, November 2017 Putin's main motivation for traveling to Vietnam — rather than sending a lower ranking official — was to sit down with Trump. The Kremlin only found out on arrival that Trump had decided to cancel the meeting. The US president later agreed to meet 'on the fly.' Putin bristled at the slight. He blamed the failure of a more robust chat on a scheduling conflict and sent a warning. 'This had to do with Mr. Trump's schedule, my schedule and certain protocol formalities which our teams, unfortunately, failed to coordinate,' Putin said. 'They will be punished for that.' In Moscow, some pointed the finger at Trump's team for trying to make up for the political fallout from the controversial dinner in Hamburg. Others recognized that Trump was under pressure not to appear too accommodating to Putin as US lawmakers and intelligence agencies continued to investigate Russian influence in the 2016 election. Helsinki, Finland: Summit, July 2018 After speaking with Putin for roughly two hours, Trump shocked even members of his own party by saying he believed Putin over his own intelligence agencies in their assessment of Russian election influence. He returned home to nearly universal rebukes of his performance. Republican Senator John McCain said 'no prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.' There was bipartisan pressure to tighten US sanctions on Russia. Moscow, on the other hand, cheered both the tone and the outcome of the talks. Putin said the two leaders had 'begun the path toward positive changes.' During the meeting, Putin secretly offered Trump a proposal to hold a referendum in the parts of eastern Ukraine held by Russian separatists. Trump later rejected the idea publicly, although Putin went ahead anyway after his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 when Trump was no longer in office. In Helsinki, Trump also invited Putin to Washington later that fall. That meeting, however, never happened. Paris, France: WWI Armistice Ceremony, November 2018 There was rampant speculation about whether Trump and Putin would have a substantive meeting on the sidelines of an international commemoration of the 1918 armistice that ended World War I. John Bolton, then Trump's national security adviser, said the two did plan to meet. The Kremlin publicly played down the possibility of talks with Trump, even though Putin had met with Bolton several weeks earlier. It was a rainy weekend. Trump and Putin took their own motorcades, skipping the soggy and somber walk to the Arc de Triomphe with other world leaders. When Putin arrived for the group photo, he first shook the hand of French President Emmanuel Macron, then German Chancellor Angela Merkel — then he shook Trump's hand, with a brief thumbs-up. Trump declining to meet separately with Putin was seen in Russia as a slight, but forgivable snub. Buenos Aires, Argentina: G-20, November 2018 With no trip to Washington and no bilateral in Paris, Putin was confident that he would see Trump in Buenos Aires. Trump confirmed that plan, but then he canceled the meeting via a social media post from the plane, citing Russia's capture of Ukrainian ships and sailors near Crimea. Russian officials were taken aback by Trump's affront – his second nixed meeting with Putin in less than a month – with one describing it as 'really bad.' Publicly, Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov insisted there was 'no offense taken,' even after the Kremlin had previously talked up the Argentina meeting. Osaka, Japan: G-20, June 2019 Putin would have to wait until the following year's G-20 summit in Japan for his next sit-down with Trump on a day the US leader also met with four other heads of state. Speaking with reporters before the meeting, Putin noted that they hadn't met since Helsinki. Trump lauded past meetings and said 'we've had a very, very good relationship.' This meeting came just two months after US Special Counsel Robert Mueller released his 448-page report on Russian election interference. He indicted two dozen Russians for social media activity and hacking Democrats. Mueller said hecouldn't charge a sitting president with a crime, according to Justice Department policy. When asked in Osaka if he would tell Putin not to meddle in the 2020 US election, Trump said, 'Yes, of course I will.' He grinned and pointed at the Russian leader and gave a light-hearted warning: 'Don't meddle in the election.' Putin played along. They also joked about fake news, with Putin smilingly telling Trump in English: 'Yes, we have it too.' Putin invited Trump to Moscow to mark the 75th anniversary of the Allied victory in World War II in 2020. That meeting never happened. By the time 2020 came, the world was locking down as the Coronavirus pandemic took hold. Trump was voted out of office and Putin went into deep isolation, emerging with a much more hostile view of the West.
