President of Russia
Vladimir Putin: Mr
President, ladies and gentlemen,
We held our talks in a constructive and mutually respectful atmosphere, and they have proved substantive and productive.
I would like to once again thank my US counterpart
for the proposal to come to Alaska. It is quite logical to meet here since our
countries, albeit separated by oceans, are, in fact, close neighbours. When we
stepped out of our planes and greeted each other, I said, “Good afternoon, dear
neighbour. I am glad to see you alive and in good health.” I believe it sounds
very friendly and neighbourly. Our countries are separated only by the Bering
Strait — essentially, there are two islands, one Russian and one American,
separated by a mere four kilometres. We are close neighbours, that’s a fact.
It is also important to note that our shared
history and many positive events are largely related to Alaska. There is still
an enormous cultural legacy preserved since the age of Russian America, with
Russian Orthodox churches and more than 700 place-names of Russian origin.
During World War II, Alaska served as the starting point for the legendary air route that delivered lend-lease supplies,
including military aircraft and other equipment. It was a dangerous and challenging route over enormous ice-covered territories. Nevertheless, the pilots and experts of both countries did everything they could to bring victory
together. They risked and sacrificed their lives for our common victory.
I have just visited the Russian city of Magadan. A monument honouring Russian and American pilots stands there, adorned
with the Russian and American flags. I know that here, too, there is a similar
monument, and at a war cemetery a few kilometres away from here, there are
graves of Soviet pilots who lost their lives in that heroic mission. We
appreciate the efforts of US officials and citizens to preserve their memory.
This is a dignified and noble undertaking.
We will always remember other examples from
history when our countries stood together against common enemies in the spirit
of combat camaraderie and alliance, rendering each other help and support. I am
certain that this legacy will help us restore and develop mutually beneficial
and equal ties at this new stage, even in the most challenging conditions.
As you
know,
Russian-American summit talks have not been held for over four years. That is a long time. This period has proved exceptionally difficult for bilateral
relations, and, let’s face it, they have deteriorated to their lowest point
since the Cold War. And this does not benefit either
our countries or the world in general.
Obviously,
sooner or later we had to remedy the situation, to move from confrontation to dialogue, and in this regard, an in-person meeting between the two heads of state was really overdue – of course, with serious and thorough preparations, and this
work has been done.
President
Trump and I have established very good direct contacts. We have had frank
conversations on the phone multiple times. As you know, the US President’s
Special Envoy, Mr Witkoff, has visited us in Russia several times. Our aides and heads of foreign ministries have maintained regular contacts.
As you
are well aware, the situation around Ukraine is
one of the key issues. We acknowledge the commitment of the US administration and President
Trump personally to help resolve the Ukrainian conflict, and the President’s willingness to understand the root causes and its origins.
I have repeatedly said that the developments in Ukraine present fundamental threats to Russia’s national
security. Moreover, we have always considered the Ukrainian people – and I have said this many times – a brotherly
people, no matter how strange it may sound in today’s circumstances. We
share the same roots, and the current
situation is tragic and deeply painful to us. Therefore,
our country is sincerely interested in ending this.
Yet, we are convinced that, for the conflict
resolution in Ukraine to be long-term and lasting, all
the root causes of the crisis, which have been repeatedly explained, must be eliminated; all
of Russia’s legitimate concerns must be taken
into account, and a fair security balance must be restored in Europe and the rest
of the world.
I agree with President Trump. He
said today that Ukraine’s security must be ensured by all means. Of course, we
are ready to work on this.
Hopefully, the understanding we have reached will
bring us closer to this goal and open up the road
to peace in Ukraine.
We hope that Kiev and the European capitals will take the current developments constructively and will neither try to put up obstacles
nor attempt to disrupt the emerging progress with provocative acts or behind-the-scenes plots.
By the way, under the new US administration,
our bilateral trade has been on the rise. So
far, it is a symbolic figure but still,
the trade is 20 percent higher. What I am saying is that we have many interesting areas for cooperation.
It is obvious that the Russian-US business and investment partnership holds tremendous potential. Russia and the United States have
much to offer each other in trade, energy, digital and high technologies, and space development.
Cooperation in the Arctic and the resumption of region-to-region contacts, including between the Russian Far East and the West Coast of the USA, also appear
relevant.
Overall, it is crucial and necessary that our
countries turn the page and get back to cooperation.
Symbolically, as I have already said, there is an international date line nearby, on the border between Russia and the United States, where you can literally step from one day into another. I hope that we can do the same in political affairs.
I would like to thank Mr Trump for our joint work and for the friendly and trust-based conversation. The main
thing is that there was a commitment on both sides to produce a result. We see that the US President
has a clear idea of what he wants to achieve, that he sincerely cares about his
country’s prosperity while showing awareness of Russia’s national interests.
I hope that today’s agreements will become a reference
point, not only for resolving the Ukrainian problem but also for resuming the pragmatic business relations between Russia and the United
States.
To conclude, I would like to add the following. I remember that in 2022, during my last contacts with the former US administration, I tried to convince my former US counterpart that we should not bring the situation to a point fraught with serious repercussions in the form of hostilities, and I said directly at the time
that it would be a big mistake.
Today, we hear President Trump saying: “If I had been president, there would
have been no war.” I believe it would have been so. I confirm this because President Trump and I have established a generally very
good, businesslike and trustworthy contact.
And I have every reason to believe that, as we move along this path, we can
reach – and the sooner the better – the end of the conflict in Ukraine.
Thank you for the attention.
President of the United States of America Donald Trump 
Trump DonaldPresident of the United States of America : Thank you very much, Mr President.
That was very profound, and I will say that I believe we had a very productive
meeting.
There were many-many points that we
agreed on, most of them, I would say, a couple of big ones that we have not
quite gotten there, but we have made some headway. So, there is no deal until
there is a deal.
I will call up NATO in a little
while. I will call up the various people that I think are appropriate, and I will, of course, call up President Zelensky and tell him about today’s meeting.
It is ultimately up to them. They are going to have to agree with [what] Marco
[Rubio] and Steve [Witkoff] and some of the great people from the Trump
administration who have come here, Scott [Bessent] and John Ratcliffe. Thank
you very much. But we have some of our really great leaders. They have been
doing a phenomenal job.
We also have some tremendous Russian
business representatives here, and I think, you know, everybody wants to deal
with us. We have become the hottest country anywhere in the world in a very
short period of time. We look forward to that, we look forward to dealing, we
are going to try to get this over with.
We really made some great progress
today. I have always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin, with
Vladimir. We had many tough meetings, good meetings. We were interfered with by the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. It made it a little bit tougher to deal with,
but he understood it. I think he has probably seen things like that during the course of his career. He has seen it all. But we had to put up with the Russia,
Russia, Russia hoax. He knew it was a hoax, and I knew it was a hoax, but what
was done was very criminal, but it made it harder for us to deal as a country
in terms of the business and all of the things that we would like to have dealt
with. But we will have a good chance when this is over.
So just to put it very quickly, I am going to start making a few phone calls and tell them what happened. We had an extremely productive
meeting, and many points were agreed to. There are just a very few that are
left. Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but
we have a very good chance of getting there. We did not get here but we have a very good chance of getting there.
I would like to thank President Putin and his entire team,
whose faces, who I know, in many cases, otherwise, other than that, whose faces
I get to see all the time in the newspapers. You are almost as famous as the boss, but especially this one right over here.
But we had some good meetings over the years, right? Good,
productive meetings over the years, and we hope to have that in the future. But
let’s do the most productive one right now. We are going to stop, really, five,
six, seven thousand, thousands of people a week from being killed, and President Putin wants to see that as much as I do.
So again, Mr President, I would like to thank you very much,
and we will speak to you very soon, and probably see you again very soon. Thank
you very much, Vladimir.
Vladimir
Putin:
Next time in Moscow.
Donald Trump: Oh, that is an interesting one. I do not know. I will get a little heat on that one, but I could see it possibly
happening. Thank you very much, Vladimir. And thank you all. Thank you.
Vladimir
Putin:
Thank you so much.