Following a productive phone conversation with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump revealed plans on Truth Social for future diplomatic efforts.
“President Putin and I have agreed to meet in Budapest, Hungary, to explore ways to end the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Tomorrow, I will meet with President Zelenskyy in the Oval Office to discuss my dialogue with President Putin and other related matters. I am optimistic that today’s conversation has paved the way for significant progress,” Trump stated.
Trump further announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will head a team of senior advisors to engage with Russian counterparts next week, with the venue still to be decided.
“We concluded the call with an agreement to organize a meeting of our High-Level Advisors next week. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, along with selected officials, will represent the United States, though the meeting location remains to be determined,” Trump elaborated.
This development follows more than two months after Trump and Putin last met in person during a summit held in Anchorage, Alaska.
Sources familiar with the decision-making process indicated that Budapest was a strong contender for that prior meeting, before Alaska was chosen. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has fostered friendly relations with both Putin and Trump.
Pressed for more information after the conclusion of the call, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the administration would provide “more details as soon as we can.”
“This call literally just happened, so we will provide you with more details as soon as we can,” she told reporters.
Leavitt added that the call between the two leaders lasted “more than two hours.”
“I was just talking with the president and the secretary of state and the vice president, and it was a very good and productive call. It lasted more than two hours,” she told reporters.
The president has recently floated the possibility of giving Ukraine Tomahawk cruise missiles unless Russia dramatically changes its negotiating posture. The topic of Tomahawks was not included in the president’s readout of his phone call with Russia’s leader.
CNN has previously reported that Zelensky told a group of journalists in Kyiv that the main topics of his conversation with the president on Friday at the White House will include “air defence and our possibilities with long-range (missiles to put) pressure on Russia.”
