Trump Not To Meet Putin In ‘Immediate future’: US Official

Washington: US President Donald Trump has no immediate plans to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, a US official said on Tuesday, days after Trump said they would meet in Budapest in two weeks.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday after Trump said the two top diplomats would meet this week to hold a Budapest summit.

“An additional face-to-face meeting between the secretary and the secretary of state is not necessary, and President Trump has no plans to meet with President Putin in the near future,” a Trump administration official said on condition of anonymity.

The official still described the meeting between Rubio and Lavrov as “productive.”

The Kremlin also said on Tuesday that there was “no definitive time frame” for the summit between Trump and Putin.

The Russian leader spoke by phone on Thursday with Trump, who is set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the next day to discuss the provision of US-made Tomahawk missiles capable of penetrating deep into Russia.

Trump hailed the call as progress and quickly posted on social media that he would meet Putin in Budapest in two weeks.

This marked the latest abrupt shift from Trump, who welcomed Putin to Alaska in August; This was his first time on Western soil since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Trump acknowledged his frustration with Putin, long boasting after returning to the White House that he could end the war in a day because of his personal chemistry with the Russian leader.