President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, with members of their respective delegations, met Friday for close to three hours at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, emerging to say they had made progress toward a potential peace plan to end the conflict in Ukraine.
At a joint press conference following the closed-door talks, both leaders declined to offer specifics on the framework they discussed, but Trump said he would reach out to NATO leadership and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the coming days.
He said he could not broker the actual deal that was discussed today, but hoped it can be forged between Ukraine and Russia.
“I’m going to start making a few phone calls and tell them what happened, but we had an extremely productive meeting and many points were agreed to. There are just a very few that are left,” Trump said.
Putin, speaking through an interpreter, expressed optimism about the talks but cautioned that the process could be undermined by other nations. He said he hopes that other European nations don’t “throw a wrench” in the process. He said that if Trump had been president, there would have been no war.
Neither leader took questions from reporters after delivering their statements. The two then left the podium, with Trump acknowledging the press corps with a wave.
The meeting was the cornerstone of Trump’s visit to Alaska, where the two leaders have been engaged in high-stakes diplomacy aimed at halting a war, now in its fourth year.