An expected meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was put on hold Tuesday, with the White House saying no summit is planned for the “immediate future.”
Mr. Trump had been expected to meet Mr. Putin in Budapest, Hungary, within a few weeks.
After Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov talked on the phone Monday, plans changed.
“Secretary Rubio and Foreign Minister Lavrov had a productive call. Therefore, an additional in-person meeting between the secretary and foreign minister is not necessary, and there are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future,” a White House official said.
Mr. Trump said later that he doesn’t want “to have a wasted meeting.”
“I don’t want to have a waste of time — so I’ll see what happens,” he said in the Oval Office, adding that over the next two days, he’ll get updates which will decide what comes next.
The Budapest idea surfaced after Mr. Trump spoke by phone with Mr. Putin on Thursday.
A day later, Mr. Trump met in the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is urging the U.S. to give him long-range cruise missiles.
Mr. Zelenskyy walked away empty-handed, even after proposing to trade Ukrainian drones for Tomahawks.
The Ukrainian president was reportedly upbraided by Mr. Trump, who pressed him to accept Russia’s war-ending terms, which include handing over the entire eastern territory of Donbas.
Mr. Putin has long desired the region.
In the Zelenskyy meeting, Mr. Trump warned him that Mr. Putin said that if Ukraine didn’t agree to Russia’s demands, it would “destroy” Ukraine.
The meeting descended into a shouting match, with Mr. Trump “cursing all the time,” according to a Financial Times report.
The White House denied that belligerence occurred.
In Russia, Mr. Lavrov confirmed his discussion with Mr. Rubio and said overall talks were on track.
“We reaffirmed our resolve to advance in line with the understandings and agreements reached by President Putin and President Trump, both in Alaska and during their phone call,” Mr. Lavrov said Tuesday, as reported by the TASS Russian News Agency.
• Jeff Mordock contributed to this story.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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