Analysts warn Trump's Alaska meeting with Putin could backfire

The President of the United States, Donald Trump. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Ahead of the planned Summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the White House has lowered expectations, acknowledging that there may be no concrete deals. Trump himself called the meeting "exploratory" and stated that within the first minutes, he would understand whether Putin was ready for a ceasefire. However, analysts believe that Trump's improvised preparations could be a disaster for global politics.

It is stated in an article of The Guardian.

Analysts believe that Putin has a clear plan, while Trump is going "impromptu"

Donald Trump, as he has said before, will either advise Kyiv and European leaders to "keep fighting" or say "a deal can be reached."

Analysts warn that the Kremlin could use this meeting to advance a scenario that is beneficial to itself. Former US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst noted that Putin is seeking to conclude the deal with Trump, which will then be presented to Kyiv and European capitals as a fait accompli. Such a scenario already reminds experts of the approach of the Yalta Conference in 1945, when key decisions were made without the participation of those directly affected by them.

Ukraine and its European partners have taken a tough stance. Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized the day before that Ukraine would not cede any territories that Russia could use for a new offensive, effectively refuting Trump's prediction of "some exchange of territories."

Commentators also point to Trump’s improvisational foreign policy style, which can be both helpful and harmful. For example, leaders such as Xi Jinping have avoided such negotiations without careful preparation due to the unpredictability of the American President. In particular, former presidential adviser Fiona Hill noted that Putin likes to "sparrish" in such situations and knows how to react quickly and accurately respond, while Trump "often just brushes it off" and gets lost.

The lack of advisers and the narrow format of the meeting raise questions about the long-term consequences of potential agreements. Hill recalled the Helsinki Summit in 2018, when Trump and Putin allegedly agreed on mutual law enforcement access to suspects in high-profile cases, but these promises were never implemented.

 "Trump hadn't fully understood what Putin had said to him," Fiona Hill recalled the experience of 2018. 

Russia is also reportedly irritated by the lack of clear procedures, which did not prevent Putin from agreeing to the first in-person meeting of this term.

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