Officials in both Washington and Moscow have agreed that no immediate summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is planned, contradicting Trump’s recent announcement of a Budapest meeting within two weeks. The rare agreement between the two capitals on diplomatic timing came Tuesday following high-level ministerial consultations.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by telephone Monday in what a US administration official described as a “productive” conversation. However, American officials have determined that no additional in-person meeting between the foreign ministers is necessary, and no near-term presidential summit will occur.
The Kremlin has adopted an identical position, with Russian officials stating Tuesday that there is no “precise timeframe” for organizing a Trump-Putin meeting. The synchronized messaging from both nations suggests that despite Trump’s earlier optimistic announcements, concrete plans for a presidential summit remain distant.
The confusion surrounding potential summit timing began last Thursday after a telephone conversation between Trump and Putin that the American president initially portrayed as significant progress in bilateral relations. Trump’s interpretation led him to announce on social media that he would meet Putin in Budapest within two weeks, timing the announcement to occur just before his planned discussion with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about supplying Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles.
Trump’s relationship with Putin has undergone multiple sudden reversals, including the controversial August decision to host Putin in Alaska for the Russian leader’s first visit to Western territory since ordering the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. While Trump has repeatedly claimed his personal connection with Putin would enable him to end the war within a day of returning to office, he has recently admitted to experiencing frustrations with the Russian leader.