White House: No plans for Trump-Putin meeting in ‘immediate future’
There are no plans for President Trump to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin “in the immediate future,” a White House official told The Hill, following a call between two of their top envoys.
A White House official said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a “productive call” on Tuesday.
“Therefore, an additional-in-person meeting between the Secretary and Foreign Minister is not necessary, and there are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future,” the official said.
The call between Rubio and Lavrov was expected to lay the groundwork for a potential Trump-Putin summit in Budapest, Hungary. Trump last week told reporters he expected to meet Putin “within two weeks or so” after the two leaders spoke on the phone.
Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine in February 2022 after amassing troops near the border.
Trump pledged during the 2024 campaign that he would end the war in Ukraine before he even took office. But he has acknowledged the conflict has been more difficult than expected to settle.
Trump and Putin met in Alaska in August for a summit that did not yield any concrete progress toward ending the war. Critics have argued Putin is stringing Trump along to keep the U.S. from providing additional weaponry to Ukraine.
Trump last week hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, where Trump expressed skepticism about providing long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine.
“They could still win it,” Trump said Monday of Ukraine’s chances in the war. “I don’t think they will, but they could still win it.”