WASHINGTON, October 17. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s phone conversation with his US counterpart Donald Trump de-facto puts the issue of delivering Tomahawk cruise missiles to the Kiev government off the table, Peter Kuznick, director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University, told TASS.
The expert described the conversation, in which the two leaders agreed to meet in Hungary, as "a very positive development."
"I'm glad that Trump and Putin spoke prior to Trump's meeting tomorrow with Zelensky and that follow-up meetings are planned and that Trump sounds more favorably disposed toward Putin than he has in recent weeks. This should at least take the question of US provision of Tomahawks to Ukraine off the table for now. Giving Tomahawks would have been dangerous and destabilizing," he told TASS.
"Hopefully, Rubio and Lavrov will set a framework for peace in Ukraine that will yield positive results when Trump and Putin meet [in Budapest]," Kuznick continued, adding that Putin and Trump "were close to working out a framework for peace when they met in Alaska."
"The biggest outstanding issue was the kind of reliable security guarantees that Ukraine will receive. Other issues like demilitarization and "de-Nazification" will have to be addressed," the expert said.
Among other things, Kuznick noted that "Putin and Trump also spoke about future trade relations between their two nations."
"Perhaps we can use that as a model for the US and Russia moving forward together along with India and China and Gulf partners in rebuilding Gaza and turning that region into a flourishing breadbasket rather than an arid desert," he said.
The expert also expressed hope "that Putin talked Trump out of invading Venezuela and made clear that such a reversion to naked and illegal gunboat diplomacy would undermine the prospects for achieving peace anywhere on the planet and that they followed up on Putin's important offer to extend the New START Treaty for a year while a follow-up treaty was being discussed."
Putin-Trump conversation
After a phone conversation with Putin on Thursday, Trump said the two leaders had agreed to meet in the Hungarian capital soon. Later, the US leader explained that the meeting may take place in the next two weeks.
Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov confirmed that Moscow and Washington would "without delay" begin preparations for the meeting, which may be held in Budapest. He described this as "a truly significant moment."