Trump seeks to hold trilateral summit as early as Aug 22

Washington, Aug 17 US President Donald Trump has told European leaders after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that he wants to arrange a trilateral summit with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as soon as August 22, US media reported.

Zelensky said in an X post on Saturday that he will meet Trump in Washington on Monday.

Trump also invited the European leaders to join Monday's White House meeting, according to US online media outlet Axios.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday that a trilateral summit is expected to follow Monday's meeting between Zelensky and Trump, Xinhua news agency reported.

So far, the Russian side has not publicly committed to a trilateral meeting.

A US newspaper reported earlier, citing sources, that following his meeting with Putin, the US leader proposed negotiating a peace deal under which Ukraine would give up the rest of the Donbass region to Russia, including areas not liberated by Russian troops, in a phone call with European leaders, Russian news agency Tass reported.

A ceasefire in the rest of Ukraine at present-day battlefronts and security guarantees, both for Kyiv and Europe, would be offered in return, Tass reported.

On August 15, Putin and Trump met at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Alaska.

Their talks lasted nearly three hours, including a one-on-one conversation in the American leader's limousine en route to the main negotiation venue, as well as a subsequent small-group discussion involving three participants on either side.

The Russian delegation included Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while the American side was represented by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff.

In a statement to the media following the talks, Putin said they mostly focused on resolving the Ukraine conflict.

Trump described his summit with Putin as "very productive".

Later, he called Zelensky, EU leaders, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

After the summit and the phone calls, Trump said that Ukraine and Russia should go straight to agreeing on a final peace deal as he dropped his demand for a ceasefire.

Trump and Zelensky are due to have a meeting in the White House on Monday.

The US leader said that if talks with Zelensky are a success, another meeting with Putin will be scheduled.

--IANS

int/khz

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