China accuses Washington of “bullying” over visa ban threats in Central America
3 hours ago
The White House has suspended plans for a summit between United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported.
An anonymous White House official told AFP that there were “no plans” for Trump to meet Putin “in the immediate future”, effectively shelving a Budapest gathering that Trump had described as imminent only days earlier. The official added that a preparatory in-person meeting between United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was unnecessary following a phone call between the two, putting the planning process on hold.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media that no dates had been finalised and that “serious preparatory work” was still required, adding that Moscow had “no understanding” of when a meeting might take place.
The suspension follows a turbulent week in which Trump publicly called for fighting in Ukraine to cease along current front lines, urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to cede the Donbas region. Zelenskiy, who left Washington without securing the long-range Tomahawk missiles he had requested, rejected any suggestion of territorial concessions.
Moscow and Washington last held leader-level talks in Alaska on August 15 but made no breakthrough on Ukraine. Diplomatic relations have since become increasingly strained.
European leaders moved swiftly to shape the diplomatic response, backing an immediate ceasefire along the existing line of contact while warning that Russia was not “serious about peace”. A joint statement from French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer endorsed Trump’s call to halt hostilities but stopped short of supporting any Ukrainian territorial concessions.
Following the White House announcement, Russian financial markets recorded their steepest fall in three years. The Moscow Exchange Index dropped 4.1% to 2,632 points, erasing roughly RUB256bn ($2.8bn) in capitalisation. Shares in Gazprom, Sberbank and Rosneft fell between 3-5%, while Aeroflot and gold producer Polyus declined by more than 5%.
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