U.S. President Donald Trump celebrated Friday that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, is traveling to the bilateral summit in Alaska with a delegation very focused on business, but warned that to deal with those issues first the “worst” must be cleared, referring to the need for a peace agreement in Ukraine.
“I’ve noticed he’s brought a delegation of business people and that’s good because I want to talk business, but for that to happen we first have to solve the worst,” Trump said in brief remarks from Air Force One ferrying him to Anchorage, Alaska, for his historic summit with Putin.
Trump is traveling to the U.S. territory, which was a former Russian colony until 1867, with much of his closest Cabinet circle, including Secretaries of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Scott Bessent, Commerce Howard Lutnick, and his presidential envoy, Steve Witkoff, who has been in charge of negotiating with Putin in Moscow.
For his part, the Russian president will arrive at the meeting together with his Finance Minister, Anton Siluanov, and the representative for foreign economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev.
This will be the first meeting between the U.S. and Russian leaders since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine in 2022.
The war on Ukrainian territory has taken its toll on Russia’s accounts and has increased the country’s deficit, something that would make Putin arrive at this meeting in an unadvantageous position in this regard.
From Air Force One, Trump insisted that if his Russian counterpart does not commit to peace in Ukraine he could face even more economic sanctions.
Trump has already punished important Moscow partners such as India with a 50% tariff hike in retaliation for buying Russian crude.
From the summit with Putin, the U.S. president hopes to achieve at least a ceasefire that would open the door to a peace agreement involving Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenski, EFE reported.
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