President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday that his team is setting up meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“He wants to meet. And we are in the process of organizing it,” he told reporters at a news conference from his Mar-a-Lago club about Putin. “President Xi, we’ve had a lot of communications. We’ve had a lot of meetings with a lot of people.
“I prefer to wait until after the 20th,” he added, referring to the date of his inauguration later this month.
“President Putin wants to meet,” Trump added. “We must end this war.”
Then-President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Friday, June 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
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Trump highlighted the “staggering” casualty rates endured by Russia and Ukraine and suggested that the number of civilian casualties was also likely considerably higher than reported.
The Kremlin confirmed Trump’s remarks on Friday and said it was ready “to resolve problems through dialogue”, Russian news agency Tass reported.
Trump-appointed special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Gen. Keith Kellogg, told Fox News Digital that he has set a goal of ending the war in Ukraine within 100 days of taking it of function.
Kellogg called the war “carnage” but expressed confidence in Trump’s ability to end the war in the “short term.”
The retired three-star general told Fox News’ “America Reports” on Thursday that he and Trump were going to make sure the ceasefire deal was “fair” and “equitable,” though it has not detailed what this means in terms of removing Russian forces from Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.
Former President Donald Trump, right, meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower Friday, September 27, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Trump has not detailed how he plans to end the three-year-old war, but he suggested he might support Putin’s demand to bar Ukraine from the Ukraine alliance. NATO, and told reporters Thursday that he “can understand.” [Putin’s] they feel like they don’t want NATO on their doorstep.
Before its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow already had four member countries of the international security alliance on its borders, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Finland then joined NATO in 2023, applying for membership just three months after the invasion on February 22, 2022.
Moscow and kyiv have made it clear that the conditions surrounding Ukraine’s NATO membership are non-negotiable.
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President Trump, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, file)
Trump has not said when he might meet with the Chinese president, and it remains unclear whether Xi plans to meet him personally.
Trump reportedly invited Xi to his inauguration ceremony, although Beijing said it would instead send a high-level envoy, which is more in line with tradition.
During his last meeting with President Biden in November, Xi expressed his willingness to work with the former and future president of the United States.
However, Trump, who once said he and Xi “love each other,” promised in late November to impose 60 percent tariffs on China, then said this week he would consider a military action to seize the Panama Canal, which the United States returned. Panama in 1979 before ending its partnership for the control of the strategic artery in 1999.
“The Panama Canal is vital to our country and it is operated by China – China. We gave the Panama Canal to Panama – we did not give it to China,” he added.
The Marshall Islands cargo ship Cape Hellas and the Portuguese cargo ship MSC Elma sail on Gatun Lake near the Agua Clara Locks of the Panama Canal in Colon City, Panama, December 28, 2024. (ARNULFO FRANCO/AFP via Getty Images)
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Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the Panama Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
The Trump transition team did not respond to questions from Fox News Digital regarding fears of triggering a military confrontation with China over Panama.
