Washington [US], January 24: US President Donald Trump said he wants to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as possible to end the conflict in Ukraine and reduce nuclear weapons.
"I really look forward to meeting with President Putin soon to stop that war. It's not from an economic standpoint or anything else. It's from the standpoint of millions of lives being wasted. It's a carnage. We really have to stop that war," President Trump said at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) via video link from the White House on January 23, according to Reuters.
The leader later told reporters at the White House that he was ready to meet with President Putin as soon as possible to end the war.
"From what I hear, Putin wants to meet with me and we'll go as soon as we can. I want to meet immediately. Every day that we don't meet, soldiers are being killed on the battlefield," President Trump said.
During his campaign, Mr Trump repeatedly said he would strike a deal to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine before taking office or on his first day in office. But his advisers now acknowledge that it could take months to resolve the conflict.
This week, the US leader threatened to impose heavy sanctions on Russia and import tariffs on Russian goods if the country did not close a deal to end the conflict.
On January 23, he said he wanted to work with Russia on reducing the number of nuclear weapons but also wanted China to join in. "We want to see denuclearization and President Putin really likes the idea of reducing nuclear weapons. China has to follow suit," President Trump said.
The Kremlin has not commented on Trump's new statements, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was nothing new about the tariff threat, according to AFP. Peskov recalled that President Trump also often used sanctions during his first term and said that Trump "liked that method".
"We are still ready for dialogue on the basis of equality and mutual respect," Mr. Peskov said, adding that he had not received any signal for dialogue from the US side.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper