China wanted to host the Trump-Putin meeting, but the US President chose Saudi Arabia
13 February 08:48
US President Donald Trump is planning to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports with reference to Reuters.
So far, the location of the meeting has not been fully agreed upon, but Saudi Arabia currently looks like an acceptable and compromise option for both sides, as both presidents are on good terms with the Saudi leadership.
It is also known that China offered its services to organize such a meeting. In particular, this was reported by The Wall Street Journal. However, this option was unconditionally rejected in Washington. They believe that China and Russia are too close partners, and the United States is currently experiencing rather tense relations with China.
It is noteworthy that, in any case, there is no question of President Zelenskyy‘s participation in this meeting. So the principle of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” no longer works even officially.
Thus, in response to the journalist’s question “Do you consider Ukraine a full participant in this peace process?” Trump replied:
“Uh, that’s an interesting question. I think they’re going to have to make peace…”.
Yesterday, Donald Trump spoke with Putin and then with Zelensky. As reported by , they talked about the future peace and the meeting of the Trump delegation at the Munich conference on Friday. At the same time, the US President did not specify with whom this meeting should take place.
Trump also said that Ukraine would not return all of its territories, but would “restore some.”
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Trump’s position on Ukraine
During the election campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly stated that he would stop the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. This deadline has already passed.
Also during the election, the media spread the so-called “Trump Plan”. The plan was that the United States would use its influence to stop the war, taking into account the status quo. To do this, Trump would force Putin and Zelenskyy to sit down at the negotiating table. If Putin does not agree to negotiate, the United States will give Ukraine all the weapons it needs to win on the battlefield. If Zelenskyy refuses to negotiate, the United States will completely stop helping Ukraine.
This plan, in its various variations, included a provision that Russia would retain the territories it temporarily occupied and that Ukraine would not join NATO.
However, later Trump seemed to “forget” about this plan. In particular, he voiced scenarios in which he would force Russia to capitulate due to the decline in world oil prices.
After Trump was elected President of the United States, one of his advisors, Brian Lanza, said that Ukraine should forget about Crimea. Trump’s entourage, however, was quick to deny this statement and said that Lanza could not speak on his behalf.
Currently, the US Special Representative for Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, is talking about 100 days within which he wants to reach some kind of agreement. Of these, 24 days have already passed.
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