Speaking in Rapid Extra, the daily Magyar Nemzet's podcast, Mr. Fekete emphasized that it would have been naïve to expect an immediate agreement from the Alaska summit. Still, the mere fact that the two leaders sat down at the negotiating table after such a long break was already a major achievement, he noted.
“Anyone who thought the fighting would stop after a single handshake was overly optimistic. This is a long process, but the fact that Trump and Putin sat down to negotiate at all is in itself a tremendous development,” the expert said.
He recalled that the last meeting between two sitting U.S. and Russian presidents took place in 2021, when Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin met in Geneva. Since the outbreak of the war, virtually all contact had ceased. Now, however, the U.S. and Russian presidents have met again — this time at an American military base in Alaska, which carried particular risks for the Russian side.
According to Mr. Fekete, the talks took place in an unusually cordial atmosphere.
Trump made several gestures toward Putin; it was clear that there was chemistry between the two leaders. Putin even got into the U.S. president’s limousine, which is highly unusual, since he generally feels safe only in his own car, surrounded by his own bodyguards,
– he noted.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump said: “We made very good progress, but there’s no agreement until there’s an agreement.” The U.S. president added that they were close to reaching a deal, but the Ukrainian side would also have to agree. He further noted that he would be willing to participate in a three-party meeting alongside Zelensky and Putin.
President Putin described the talks as constructive and even stated that if Trump had been president, the war would never have started.
This remark shows that Trump had struck a very different tone from his predecessor, Joe Biden, whose withdrawal from Afghanistan projected weakness and emboldened Moscow,
– Mr. Fekete observed.
According to the expert, the international press reacted with restraint. The Ukrainian was sharply critical of Trump for “shaking hands with a dictator” while soldiers were dying on the front. Meanwhile, the liberal press in the U.S. repeated its usual narrative that Trump was cultivating dangerous ties with authoritarian leaders.
This is pathetic, because such media noise distracts from the essence: that peace can only be achieved at the negotiating table, not on the frontlines,
– he stated.
