US President Donald Trump said on Saturday (local time) that he won't be 'wasting' his time and he does not plan to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin until the two sides finalise a deal to end the Ukraine that broke out in February 2022.
The Republican leader made the remarks while speaking to reporters aboard the Air Force One.
Here's everything you need to know about this story in 10 points:
- Earlier this month, the US had announced that Trump would be meeting Putin in Hungary's Budapest to discuss ways to end the Ukraine conflict. However, talks have not been successful since then, with both sides showing reservations in holding another summit.
- "We have to know that we're going to make a deal. I'm not going to be wasting my time. I've always had a great relationship with Vladimir Putin, but this has been very disappointing," said Trump.
- Trump and Putin had held a summit in Alaska in August. The two leaders had described the meeting highly successful, and said that they would be holding another summit soon.
- During a joint press conference, Putin had also invited Trump to Moscow for the second summit.
- With talks hitting a roadblock, Trump has now said that he may take China's help to 'deal with Russia'. China, along with India, has been the largest buyer of Russian crude and the US President has constantly said that both Beijing and New Delhi should cut their oil imports from Moscow.
- "I may be discussing it (purchase of Russian oil) with President Xi... China's cutting back very substantially on the purchase of Russian oil, and India's cutting back completely, and we've imposed sanctions," he said on Saturday.
- In case of India, Trump has also imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff for procuring Russian oil. In total, the US has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India, a move that been constantly criticised by New Delhi. India has called the tariffs 'unjust', vowing to protect its national interest.
- Meanwhile, Trump on Saturday once again reiterated that he solved the four-day military conflict between India and Pakistan, pointing out that he thought he would be able to resolve the issues between Russia and Ukraine.
- "If you look at India and Pakistan, I could say almost any one of the deals that I've already done, I thought would have been more difficult than Russia and Ukraine. But it didn't work out that way," the 79-year-old said.
- Though Trump has repeatedly claimed to have solved India-Pakistan's May conflict, New Delhi has maintained that no third party was involved in the ceasefire negotiations with Islamabad.
