President Donald Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin “made some headway” and “great progress” in their bilateral meeting Friday, but that he would need to make “a few phone calls” before a formal deal could be announced.

Trump and Putin met for nearly three hours at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, Friday, for a high-stakes summit aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

The president was joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff, shifting from the initial one-on-one format to a three-on-three meeting. The Russian Delegation included Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov.

Without going into specifics, Trump told reporters at a press conference following the summit that Ukraine would have to “agree” with any framework he, Rubio, and Witkoff discussed with the Putin delegation.

“I will call up NATO in a little while. I will call up the various people that I think are appropriate. And I’ll, of course, call up President [Volodymyr] Zelensky and tell him about today’s meeting. It’s ultimately up to them,” Trump said. “I’m going to start making a few phone calls and will tell them what happened,” he added.

Putin spoke first at the presser, telling reporters that the negotiations were “held in a constructive atmosphere of mutual respect.”

“We had very thorough negotiations that were quite useful, and thanks Donald Trump for proposing the Alaska summit,” the Russian president said.

Putin said Russia is “sincerely interested” in ending the conflict, but in order for it to be a “lasting” peace, they need to address “the primary causes of the conflict” and Russia’s “legitimate concerns.”

“I agree with President Trump, as he has said today, that naturally, the security of Ukraine should be assured as well. Naturally, we are prepared to work on that.” he said, adding “I would like to hope that the agreement that we’ve reached together will help us bring closer that goal, and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine.”

“Me and President Trump have built a very good business-like and trustworthy contact…we can come to the end to the conflict in Ukraine,” Putin told reporters.

Taking a swipe at European leaders, Putin said he hoped they wouldn’t “torpedo the nascent progress”.

He went on to say there was “potential” for a big expansion of the US-Russia relationship, as well as cooperation in the Arctic.

“We will always remember other historical examples of when our countries defeated common enemies together in the spirit of battle camaraderie and allyship that supported each other, facilitated each other,” Putin added. “I am sure this heritage will help us rebuild and foster mutually beneficial and equal ties at this new stage, even during the hardest conditions.”

Putin also echoed something Trump has said many times about the Ukraine War.

“When President Trump says if he was the president back then, there would be no war, it would indeed be SO,” the Russian president stated. “I can confirm that.”

Trump thanked the Russian president for his “profound” remarks and described the meeting as “very productive”.

“There were many, many points that we agreed on,” he told reporters. “I would say a couple of big ones, but we haven’t quite got there, we’ve made some headway.

“We had an extremely productive meeting and many points were agreed to, there are very few that are left,” the president continued. “Some are not that significant, one is probably the most significant but we have a very good chance of getting there.”

“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump declared.

The president also recalled how U.S. relations with Russia were damaged during his first term due to the Russia hoax despite his “fantastic relationship with President Putin.”

“We were interfered by Russia, Russia, Russia hoax…but he [Putin] understood it. He’s seen it all,” Trump said.  “He knew it was a hoax, I knew it was a hoax. It was very criminal. But it made it harder for us to deal, as a country, in terms of business, and things we’d like to have dealt with.”

Trump thanked Putin and said they would “probably” be meeting again very soon.

The Russian president responded: “Next time – in Moscow.”

“Oooh, that’s an interesting one,” Trump reacted. “I don’t know, I’ll get a little heat on that one. I could see it possibly happening. Thank you very much, Vladimir.”