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US President Donald Trump has no immediate plans to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, a US official said on Wednesday, just days after Trump said they would meet within two weeks in Budapest.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke by telephone on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, after Trump said that the two top diplomats would be meeting this week to arrange a Budapest summit.
“A further face-to-face meeting between the secretary and the foreign minister isn’t required, and there’s no immediate intention for President Trump to hold talks with President Putin,” an official from the Trump administration disclosed anonymously.
The official nonetheless called the call between Rubio and Lavrov “productive.”
The Kremlin said on Tuesday there was no “precise timeframe” for a summit between Trump and Putin.
On Thursday, President Trump had a phone conversation with the Russian leader, ahead of his scheduled meeting the next day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The agenda included discussions on supplying US-manufactured Tomahawk missiles capable of reaching deep within Russian territory.
Trump hailed the call as progress and quickly posted on social media that he would meet with Putin in Budapest within two weeks.
It marked the latest abrupt shift by Trump, who in August welcomed Putin to Alaska — his first time on Western soil since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Trump has acknowledged his frustrations with Putin after long boasting that he could end the war within a day of returning to the White House due to his personal chemistry with the Russian leader.
