President Donald Trump spoke with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday in a "very productive" telephone conversation, according to a post by Trump on Truth Social.
Trump said that Putin congratulated him on the peace deal to end the Israel-Hamas war, which the US President thinks would help in negotiating the end of the Ukraine war.
“I have just concluded my telephone conversation with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, and it was a very productive one. President Putin congratulated me and the United States on the Great Accomplishment of Peace in the Middle East, something that, he said, has been dreamed of for centuries. I actually believe that the Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia/Ukraine,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social after the call.
Trump said that they spent a great deal of time talking about trade between Russia and the United States when the war with Ukraine ends.
Trump said that a "high level advisors" from both countries will meet next week.
"President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this 'inglorious' War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end," he said.
Putin’s special envoy confirmed the call was "productive" and clearly established the framework for future talks.
The phone call comes just before Trump is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Friday.
After the phone call, Kremlin said it would "immediately" start preparing a summit between Russian and US presidents after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump held an "extremely frank and trustful" phone call.
"It has been agreed that representatives of the two countries will immediately start organising the summit which could be held, for instance, in Budapest," Putin's top aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists.
(With inputs from AFP)
