On the whole, Donald Trump seemed less ready to crow about Friday’s discussions than was Vladimir Putin.
Well, what did we learn here?
Judging from their body language, the Russian delegation seemed thrilled with whatever happened behind closed doors in the don’t-call-it-a-summit meeting in Anchorage. Vladimir Putin stressed the long and historic ties between the United States and Russia, referencing the U.S.-Soviet alliance and victory against Nazi Germany several times in his remarks at the post-talks press conference. Playing up the geographic proximity between Russia’s far east and Alaska, Putin told the press that he greeted Trump on the tarmac by saying, “Good day, dear neighbor, hope you’re well.”
For his own part, Donald Trump seemed a bit more subdued and reserved than he usually is, but emphasized that he’s always had a “fantastic relationship with Vladimir.” The president told the assembled international press corps that there had been great progress toward whatever deal the two men were working on. He seemed pleased with the potential for bilateral cooperation and investment opportunities on trade, on high-tech, and in the Arctic.
Of course even a subdued Trump is still idiosyncratic, one of a kind, and totally Trumpy. He was clearly pleased that he had Putin and the world’s attention. And in an aside that would be shocking if it weren’t almost normal these days, the president again couldn’t refrain from displaying his inability to get over what he calls the “Russia, Russia, Russia hoax” and his disputes with his domestic political opponents — even while speaking to the international press and while sharing a stage with one of America’s most important geopolitical adversaries.
Putin told the press that Russia and the United States have reached an agreement to “pave the path to peace in Ukraine” without saying much about what the agreement actually is, what it potentially commits any individual country to do, or if Ukraine and Russia are closer to a cease-fire. That is interesting, to say the least, because Putin emphasized that any agreement would have to to address all of Russia’s legitimate security concerns. Careful observers will note that “Russia’s legitimate security concerns” is usually a Kremlin euphemism for a Ukraine that lives under Putin’s boot and is decidedly not free to make its own way in the world or align itself with the West.
Trump — in very brief comments — noted that only a few minor differences separated the two sides. How much of that description is a function of his background as a New York real-estate developer and promoter is hard to gauge. The American president did say that he’s trying to end a war that’s killing “7,000 people a week,” which is easy enough to believe, and that “President Putin wants to see the war end as much as I do,” which is much harder to believe.
Neither man took any questions — which shocked a press corps now used to Trump’s ready availability and his loquacious presidency. Trump did say that he would now, as he had promised before the Alaska meeting, go report on the proceedings to our European allies and to the Ukrainians.
On the whole, Donald Trump seemed less ready to crow about Friday’s discussions than was Vladimir Putin. That’s likely because Trump didn’t get a cease-fire from the meeting, which he badly wants, while Putin got to break through the diplomatic isolation he and his country have been living under for the last several years, and share a platform with (and a bit of the prestige of) the president of the United States.
In the end, however, President Trump said it best: There’s “no deal until there’s a deal.”