Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are meeting on the far side of the world, and Europe is not invited.
Ukraine will obviously be on the Anchorage summit’s agenda, but it may not even be the top item. Instead the two leaders could choose to find common ground over arms control and nuclear security. Getting Russia to rejoin the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty which Moscow abandoned soon after its invasion of Ukraine would be one positive trust-building breakthrough. Another is dividing up the mineral wealth of the Arctic.
Mr Trump has taken pains to lower expectations of a Ukraine ceasefire, instead describing the Anchorage summit as “a feel-out meeting” to see what Putin “has in mind”. If the US president feels that Putin is offering a “fair deal” he promised to “reveal it to the European Union leaders and to Nato leaders and also to President Zelensky”.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are meeting on the far side of the world, and Europe is not invited.
Ukraine will obviously be on the Anchorage summit’s agenda, but it may not even be the top item. Instead the two leaders could choose to find common ground over arms control and nuclear security. Getting Russia to rejoin the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty which Moscow abandoned soon after its invasion of Ukraine would be one positive trust-building breakthrough. Another is dividing up the mineral wealth of the Arctic.
Mr Trump has taken pains to lower expectations of a Ukraine ceasefire, instead describing the Anchorage summit as “a feel-out meeting” to see what Putin “has in mind”. If the US president feels that Putin is offering a “fair deal” he promised to “reveal it to the European Union leaders and to Nato leaders and also to President Zelensky”.