Donald Trump, president of the richest and most powerful nation on Earth, jetted the entire width of America in a westward direction to meet his Russian counterpart, president of the largest country on the planet, who undertook a similar, but much longer, journey in the opposite direction. The two “neighbours” met on 15 August 2025 in the northwestern US state of Alaska. It must be noted in this context that Big Diomede Island, at the easternmost point of Russia, is just three miles away from Alaska’s Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait. Putin stepped off his plane onto a red carpet at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a military facility shared by the US Air Force and the US Army and spread over 64,000 acres at the northern edge of the city of Anchorage, on what could still conceivably have still been part of Russia if the Seward Purchase of 1867, believed to be ill-considered at the time, had not gone ahead. Under a deal negotiated at the time by Secretary of State William H. Seward, the US paid the Russian Empire $7.2 million for the privilege of acquiring Alaska, which now seems a huge bargain given the state’s immense natural resources.
Putin’s plane was escorted by four US fighter jets. This was his first visit to the US since he addressed the UN General Assembly in New York City in September 2015. Following a lingering handshake with Trump, the two travelled together in the presidential armoured Cadillac limousine to the chosen venue for their meeting. The last time they had met in person was at the G20 Summit in Osaka in June 2019. The “highly anticipated meeting” began at 11:30 AM Alaska Daylight Time and ended within three hours, rather than the seven hours originally set aside. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not invited, although one would have expected him to be a key participant in any discussions. Instead of a one-to-one meeting between Putin and Trump, both presidents were accompanied by their advisers. The precise details of their discussions are not immediately available and may never be fully made public, although snippets are emerging at the time of writing. A “press conference” was opened by Putin, followed by Trump, although without any questions from the press. The leaders then departed, foregoing the opportunity to lunch together. What a tired-looking Trump described as an “extremely productive meeting” ended without any agreement on a ceasefire or indeed on the nature of any further negotiations.
It is worth noting that, on 12 August, Karoline Leavitt, the voluble and assertive White House Press Secretary, had described the forthcoming event as a “listening exercise for the president.” It might have been appropriate to have preceded it by a “reading exercise.” An essay by Vladimir Putin entitled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians”, published on 12 July 2021 and packed with historical detail, emphasises that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people-a single whole” and that a process of “divide and rule” has distanced Russia and Ukraine. Furthermore, “modern Ukraine is entirely the product of the Soviet era” and “Russia was robbed” through its creation. This important essay can be accessed on the Kremlin’s own website. Putin will stand by his guns unless the “root causes” of the conflict are dealt with. There can be little doubt of Putin’s intentions as they have been well-articulated in writing, while Trump continually changes his options, depending on his gut feelings at the time. When it comes to the bigger picture regarding Ukraine, Putin and Trump are clearly on different pages, with different mindsets to boot.
It seems that foreign policy may not be the strongest point for Donald Trump, the well-intentioned global peacemaker and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, nor for his special envoy Steve Witkoff. Neither extensive success in getting major real estate deals done nor aggressive rhetoric, coupled with threats of more sanctions, tariffs, and “severe consequences” necessarily translate into success when dealing with difficult geopolitical issues and disputed matters of historical detail. Much hard work lies ahead before the conflict in Ukraine can be resolved satisfactorily. Following this latest encounter, Vladimir Putin is widely considered to have gained the upper hand.
Ashis Banerjee