US officials have determined that no additional in-person meetings between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are necessary, and consequently, no immediate summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is planned, a US official announced Tuesday. The decision contradicts Trump’s recent social media posts about meeting Putin in Budapest within two weeks.
The determination came after Rubio and Lavrov spoke by telephone Monday in what was originally intended as a planning session for a presidential summit. While the call was described as “productive” by the anonymous US administration official, it did not result in any concrete plans for either additional ministerial meetings or a presidential summit.
The Kremlin has similarly downplayed expectations for an imminent Trump-Putin meeting, with Russian officials stating Tuesday that there is no “precise timeframe” for organizing such a summit. The synchronized messaging from both Washington and Moscow suggests that diplomatic preparations for a presidential meeting are not as advanced as Trump’s social media announcements indicated.
The diplomatic confusion began last Thursday following a telephone conversation between Trump and Putin that the American president initially portrayed as a breakthrough moment in bilateral relations. Trump’s enthusiasm prompted him to quickly announce on social media that he would meet Putin within two weeks in Budapest, timing the declaration to coincide with his scheduled meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky regarding the potential provision of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
Trump’s relationship with Putin has undergone multiple sudden reversals, including the controversial August decision to host Putin in Alaska for the Russian leader’s first visit to Western territory since ordering the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. While Trump has repeatedly claimed his personal connection with Putin would enable him to end the war within a day of returning to office, he has recently admitted to experiencing frustrations in dealing with the Russian president.
