President Donald Trump said that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had an “extremely productive meeting” in Alaska about winding down the Ukraine war, but he also stressed “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
Trump and Putin emerged for a press conference after a 3-hour closed-door meeting with their top advisers with optimistic messages, though a deal has not been reached or finalized.
“I will say that I believe we had a very productive meeting. There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say–a couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there, but we’ve made some headway. So there’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump said.
“We really made some great progress today. I’ve always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin, with Vladimir. We had many, many tough meetings and good meetings,” he went on to add. “We were interfered with by the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. It made it a little bit tougher to deal with, but he understood it.”
Of the issues that linger as roadblocks to a potential deal, Trump said ,”Some are not that significant,” while one issue he did not identify “is probably the most significant.” He expressed optimism that an agreement can be reached regarding whatever the particular issue is.
“We have a very good chance of getting there. We didn’t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there,” he told reporters.
Trump said his next move is to call the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I will call up the various people that I think are appropriate, and I’ll, of course, call up President Zelensky and tell them about today’s meeting. It’s ultimately up to them,” he added.
Trump also emphasized the investment pouring into the United States and hinted at the opportunities Russian businesses could have if the war came to an end.
“We also have some tremendous Russian business representatives here. And I think, you know, everybody wants to deal with us,” he said. “We’ve become the hottest country anywhere in the world in a very short period of time, and we look forward to that. We look forward to dealing–we’re going to try and get this over with.”
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