The US-Russia summit in Budapest will not take place. It was canceled after a tense phone call between the foreign ministers of the two countries, The Telegraph reports.
The setback came after Marco Rubio said the meeting was “unlikely to lead to positive results in peace talks.”
There is some hope for another summit between Trump and Putin in the future, a senior official told The Wall Street Journal.
The fact is that Russia’s position on negotiations and conflict resolution remains firm and has not changed, the publication notes, citing the Russian foreign minister.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke by phone the day before. According to the publication, their phone call “did not work out.”
According to the newspaper, Lavrov informed Rubio that Russia did not agree to a freeze on the conflict along the current front line. Reuters previously reported that the summit between the heads of state was under threat due to Moscow's opposition to an immediate cessation of hostilities.
On October 21, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders supported US President Donald Trump's proposal for an immediate cessation of hostilities. Moscow stressed that it would not agree to a ceasefire and advocated a comprehensive settlement, including addressing the "root causes of the conflict". Russia demands that Ukraine abandon its NATO membership, respect the rights of Russian-speaking citizens and recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea and the republics in Donbas.
Following the phone call between Rubio and Lavrov, Reuters reported that their meeting could take place on October 23. However, CNN later reported that it had been postponed. According to The Telegraph, the in-person meeting between Rubio and Lavrov, aimed at preparing for the Trump-Putin summit, was ultimately canceled and the organization of the latter has subsequently stalled.
Amid reports of the postponement of the Rubio-Lavrov meeting, the Kremlin noted that "something that has not been agreed upon cannot be postponed". However, the Trump administration told RBC that the conversation between the foreign ministers was productive, "therefore, an additional in-person meeting between the Secretary of State and the Foreign Minister is not necessary, and President Trump does not plan to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the near future".
Putin and Trump agreed to a new meeting during a phone call in mid-October. The topic of these talks was the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. This meeting was supposed to be the second since Trump was re-elected as US president.
According to an NBC source in the White House, the US president believes that both sides are not sufficiently prepared for negotiations and therefore preparations for the meeting have been suspended.
A decision on whether the Russian-American summit in Budapest will take place could come within a few days, Trump said during a meeting with reporters at the White House.
“A lot of things are happening on that front. I don't want the meeting to be a waste of time. We'll see what happens,“ he said during a meeting with reporters at the White House. "We haven't made a decision yet," Trump stressed.
The US president is convinced that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky want an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
"I believe Putin wants it to end. I think Zelensky wants it to end. And I believe it will end," he said, referring to the conflict in Ukraine.
Trump answered affirmatively when asked if he believed there was a "chance for a ceasefire" in Ukraine.
The US president reiterated his belief that the Ukrainian conflict could have previously led to the outbreak of World War III. He stated that there is no such threat now.
Many want to prevent a new meeting between Putin and Trump, and until it takes place, numerous leaks and fake news will continue to circulate. This was stated by Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, commenting on the information about the cancellation of the Russian-American summit in Budapest.
“The moment the next peace summit was announced, it became clear that many would do everything they could to prevent it. The pro-war political elite and its media always do this before important events that could be decisive in matters of war and peace“, the foreign minister wrote on his Facebook page. “This happens before every European Council meeting. This happens before decisions are made on sanctions packages or the European peace system. Nothing new under the sun. Now, by the time the summit takes place, there will be dozens of leaks, fake news and claims that the summit will not take place“, Szijjártó noted.
On October 21, he visited Washington. The minister did not disclose details of his meetings, but on the eve of his trip he made it clear that he would discuss preparations for Trump's visit to Budapest.
“We will inform you about our actions in the next two days. A lot is happening“, he stressed.
The media is distorting news about the Russia-US summit in Budapest in order to undermine it. This opinion was expressed by Kirill Dmitriev, special representative of the President of the Russian Federation for investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, noting that preparations for the summit are continuing.
“The media is distorting statements about the “near future“ to undermine the upcoming summit. Preparations are continuing“, Dmitriev wrote in English on his Facebook page. This was his comment on the news that the Russia-US summit in Hungary had been canceled.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico believes that the European Union, if it wants peace in Ukraine, should do everything possible to ensure a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in Budapest as soon as possible.
„If the EU really wants immediate peace in Ukraine, which I do not believe, then it should do everything possible to ensure that the Trump-Putin meeting takes place in Budapest without any obstacles and as quickly as possible. Holding the Trump-Putin summit in Budapest as soon as possible, without any obstacles and with the full support of the EU is my official position“, the prime minister wrote on his Facebook page.
According to him, the EU is currently making visible attempts to obstruct the summit in Budapest, despite the fact that its date has not yet been set. “I have always said that the EU has turned into a war cabinet, the majority of EU member states support the war in Ukraine, naively believing that this will weaken or even defeat Russia“, Fico wrote.