Donald Trump has said he did not want a pointless meeting after a plan to hold face-to-face talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine was suspended.
The U.S. President indicated that a key sticking point remained Moscow’s refusal to halt fighting along the current front line, in his remarks at the White House on Tuesday, according to the BBC.
Earlier, a White House official had said there were “no plans” for a Trump-Putin meeting “in the near future,” after Trump stated on Thursday that the two would hold talks in Budapest within two weeks.
The main differences between the U.S. and Russian peace proposals became increasingly clear this week, appearing to extinguish the chances of a summit.
Trump and Putin last met in Alaska in August, during a hastily arranged summit that produced no concrete results.
The White House’s decision to postpone plans for a second Trump-Putin meeting may be seen as an effort to avoid another similar scenario.
