Trump to meet Putin next Friday in Alaska as bullying India backfires

New Delhi: US President Donald Trump’s bid to bully India into cutting Russian oil imports has not only failed but appears to have backfired. 

Barely 48 hours after he slapped an additional 25% tariff, taking total US duties on Indian goods to a staggering 50%, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, reaffirmed the “Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership” and inviting him to India later this year for the 23rd annual summit.

Modi also received a call from Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, another leader hit by Trump’s tariffs, and discussed expanding cooperation in trade, technology, defence, agriculture, energy, health and people-to-people ties.

On the same day, Trump announced he will host Putin in Alaska on August 15 for talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. 

Both countries had hinted that a meeting could happen as early as next week. If held, it will mark the first US-Russia summit since 2021 and Putin’s first visit to American soil since 2015.

A high-stakes meeting

Trump called it “the highly anticipated meeting”, saying more details would follow. Speaking earlier at the White House, he said the summit would have been held sooner but “security arrangements” had to be made. 

The decision to host Putin on US soil breaks from expectations that the talks would be held in a third country, a move that hands the Russian leader a symbolic win after years of Western efforts to isolate him.

The Alaska meeting comes more than three years after Russia invaded Ukraine, a war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. Trump suggested any peace agreement would likely involve “some swapping of territories”, though he gave no details. Analysts close to the Kremlin have speculated Russia could agree to give up areas outside the four Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed.

Trump also indicated the Putin summit would take place before any sit-down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, fuelling European concerns that Kyiv could be sidelined in the search for an end to the continent’s biggest war since World War II.

Pressure tactics fail to move Kremlin

Trump’s meeting announcement comes after weeks of threats to ramp up sanctions and impose secondary tariffs on countries buying Russian oil if Moscow did not move towards a settlement. The deadline for the ultimatum expired Friday with no sign of Russia easing its military campaign.

On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces are engaged in intense fighting along a 1,000-kilometre front line stretching from the northeast to the south. The eastern Donetsk region, particularly around Pokrovsk, is bearing the brunt as Russia seeks to push into the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region. Heavy clashes are also reported in the northern Sumy region, with Ukrainian troops trying to prevent Russian reinforcements from shifting to Donetsk.

“It is impossible to negotiate with them. The only option is to defeat them,” said “Buda”, a drone unit commander in Ukraine’s Spartan Brigade. In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a howitzer commander known as “Warsaw” said, “We are on our land, we have no way out. So we stand our ground.”

Putin’s phone diplomacy

Ahead of the Alaska summit, Putin has been on a flurry of calls with key allies and partners. The Kremlin said he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping to brief him on talks with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, with Xi expressing support for a long-term settlement. Putin also held conversations with the leaders of South Africa, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Belarus.

The outreach extended to Modi, with the two leaders reviewing progress in bilateral cooperation and reiterating their shared commitment to deepening strategic ties. The timing, just two days after Trump’s tariff hike, underscored New Delhi’s unwillingness to be strong-armed over its energy choices.

Putin is due to visit China next month. Beijing, along with North Korea and Iran, has been accused by the US of providing military support to Russia’s war effort.

Analysts sceptical of quick peace

While some pro-Kremlin analysts claim the flurry of diplomacy may indicate movement towards a real agreement, most Western observers remain doubtful. 

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said this week that “Putin remains uninterested in ending his war and is attempting to extract bilateral concessions from the United States without meaningfully engaging in a peace process.”

According to the think tank, the Russian leader continues to believe “time is on Russia’s side” and that he can outlast Ukraine and its Western backers.