US President Donald Trump has announced that he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, 15 August, in Alaska for talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
The Ministry of External Affairs said India welcomes the understanding reached between Washington and Moscow. “This meeting holds the promise of bringing an end to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and opening prospects for peace. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said on several occasions, this is not an era of war,” the statement read.
It will be Putin’s first visit to the US since 2015, when he met then-President Barack Obama.
On Truth Social, Trump called the upcoming meeting “highly anticipated” and said further details would be announced soon. The Kremlin said the leaders would focus on finding a “long-term peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian crisis”, describing the process as “challenging” but one it would approach “actively and energetically”.
The announcement of the Alaska meeting came just a day after Trump imposed a 50 per cent tariff on India over its imports of Russian oil.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected any such proposal, insisting, “The answer to Ukraine’s territorial question is already in our constitution. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.”
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, held a three-hour meeting with Putin in Moscow, which the US described as “highly productive”.