Security experts are sounding the alarm that China and the rest of the international community are closely watching how President Donald Trump interacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin after their meeting in Alaska Friday.

The White House said in the lead-up to the talks that the meeting was a “listening exercise,” and Trump confirmed he would make neither deals nor concessions when speaking with Putin.

But security experts have warned that this meeting will have consequences beyond the war in Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin as they meet to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, Aug. 15, 2025.  (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

“Since China acts as a consistent supporter and enabler of Russia, of course they are watching the talks regarding Ukraine very closely,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė told Fox News Digital during her trip to Washington, D.C., this week.

“Any concession would no doubt serve as an incentive for the PRC [People’s Republic of China] to undertake a hostile path in the Indo-Pacific as the risk of dire consequences would be perceived as significantly lower.” 

Trump said he would call his European and Ukrainian counterparts immediately after the Anchorage-based talks and that he hoped the next step would be for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin to meet in person, possibly along with Trump and other European leaders.

“If Washington is perceived as ‘selling out’ Ukraine, Beijing will learn a simple lesson: Coercion pays and costs are containable,” Singleton added. “In that case, Beijing may step up [military] incursions around Taiwan and intensify gray-zone pressure to gauge just how much stability Washington will trade for silence.”

But there is one more element to the meetings that has security experts worried – Zelenskyy’s absence. 

Though the meeting was apparently pushed by Putin, who has thus far refused to meet with Zelenskyy despite the Ukrainian president’s calls to do so, his absence when discussing a war taking place on his nation’s soil could speak volumes to China.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands at the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Tatarstan Republic, Russia. (Getty Images)

“From Beijing’s perspective, leaving Zelenskyy out widens the lane for a face-saving freeze that locks in Russia’s battlefield gains, an implicit nod that great powers can revise borders by force,” Singleton said. “Beijing will quietly welcome it and note that Washington entertained settlement talks without Kyiv, a precedent it will pocket for Asia.”

Ultimately, he argued, “If aggression pays in Europe, deterrence discounts in Asia.”

“For Beijing, the Alaska meeting is the message. Great powers bargaining over smaller states normalizes the world order Chinese leader Xi Jinping prefers,” Singleton added.