Trump Calls Off Planned Putin Summit, Citing Lack of Progress

By Staff, Agencies

US President Donald Trump has canceled his planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he does not believe the meeting would achieve meaningful progress at this stage of their dialogue. The Kremlin has not yet issued a response.

Speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said the proposed summit in Budapest “did not feel right.”

“It did not feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get, so I cancelled it,” the US leader said.

However, Trump left the door open for future talks with Moscow, adding, “We will do it in the future,” though he did not specify a potential date or venue.

The decision came shortly after Washington imposed a new round of sanctions on Russia, accusing Moscow of showing “a lack of serious commitment to a peace process.” The US Treasury Department targeted two of Russia’s largest energy firms, Rosneft and Lukoil, along with their subsidiaries.

Asked about the impact of the sanctions, Trump conceded uncertainty over whether they would influence Moscow’s approach to the Ukraine conflict. “Hopefully he [Putin] will become reasonable, and hopefully [Ukraine’s Vladimir] Zelensky will be reasonable too,” he said. “It takes two to tango.”

The Budapest summit was initially floated last week after a phone call between Trump and Putin, but no exact date had been confirmed. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously said any meeting between the two leaders would require “serious preparation,” emphasizing that such a summit “should not be wasted,” as both presidents “are accustomed to working for a result.”