President Trump said he could talk business deals with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but only if he sees an end to the war in Ukraine.

“I noticed he’s bringing a lot of business people from Russia, and that’s good. I like that because they want to do business, but they’re not doing business until we get the war solved,” Mr. Trump told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One on his way to the high-stakes summit in Alaska.

When asked a second time if he would be open to business opportunities between the U.S. and Russia, Mr. Trump said they depend on a clear sign of peace.

“If we make progress, I would discuss it, because that’s one of the things that they would like; they’d like to get a piece of what I built in terms of the economy,” Mr. Trump said.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Kirill Dmitriev, a senior economic negotiator and head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, are among those attending the talks between the two world leaders.

Trade between Moscow and Washington has fallen by roughly 90% since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but America still imported $3 billion worth of goods from Russia last year, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Among the biggest imports from the U.S. to Russia were fertilizer, which totaled more than $1 billion in trade; palladium, a metal used in electronic and auto products; uranium and plutonium.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.