Both Washington and Moscow applied the brakes Tuesday to President Trump’s declaration of an impending summit with Vladimir Putin. An anonymous US official stated definitively that there are “no plans” for such a meeting in the “immediate future.”
This comes after Trump’s Thursday phone call with Putin, which the US president hailed as “progress.” Trump quickly followed that call with a social media post announcing a meeting in Budapest within two weeks.
To facilitate this, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday. While the call was termed “productive” by the US official, it apparently did not result in a firm plan.
The official noted that a follow-up in-person meeting between the diplomats was “not necessary” at this time.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson aligned with this new timeline, telling media on Tuesday that “no precise timeframe” exists for a summit. This sudden change in messaging marks another sharp turn in Trump’s approach to Russia, balancing recent meetings in Alaska with frustrations over the war in Ukraine.