Despite a productive telephone conversation between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday, no immediate meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is planned, a US official confirmed Tuesday. The announcement contradicts Trump’s recent social media declaration of a Budapest summit within two weeks.
American officials have determined that no additional in-person meeting between the foreign ministers is necessary following their Monday phone call, effectively placing any potential presidential summit on indefinite hold. The decision represents a significant step back from Trump’s earlier optimistic pronouncements about the state of US-Russia relations.
The US administration official, speaking anonymously, characterized the Rubio-Lavrov telephone exchange as “productive,” suggesting meaningful dialogue occurred despite the absence of concrete summit plans. The Kremlin has adopted a similar non-committal stance, with Russian officials stating Tuesday that there is no “precise timeframe” for arranging a Trump-Putin meeting.
The diplomatic uncertainty originated from a Thursday telephone call between Trump and Putin that the American president initially portrayed as a breakthrough. Trump’s interpretation of the call prompted him to announce on social media that he would meet Putin in Budapest within two weeks, an announcement timed just before his scheduled discussion with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about supplying Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles.
Trump’s approach to Putin has been marked by sudden policy reversals, including the August decision to welcome Putin to Alaska for the Russian leader’s first visit to Western soil since initiating the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. While Trump has repeatedly claimed his personal rapport with Putin would allow him to end the war within a day of returning to the White House, he has recently expressed frustrations in dealing with the Russian president.
Foreign Ministers Talk but Presidential Summit Remains Elusive
