After Trump's red carpet welcome, summit with Putin starts in Alaska (Ld)

New York, Aug 16 (IANS) US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin started their "high stakes" summit on Friday after a choreographed welcome ceremony at the airport.

Trump walked from Air Force 1 to the red carpet and clapped as Putin walked over to him and they shook hands warmly, and walked to a waiting limousine, talking directly without interpreters.

Later, they appeared in a conference room against a backdrop that read "Pursuing Peace", with officials, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov present, instead of the earlier proposal of first having direct talks between themselves.

Before flying to Alaska, Trump cryptically posted on social media, "HIGH STAKES!!!", summing up the importance of the meeting to find an end to the Ukraine War.

"I want to see a ceasefire rapidly," he told reporters travelling with him on Air Force 1.

"I don't know if it's going to be today, but I'm not going to be happy if it's not today," he added a note of caution.

"I'm in this to stop the killing," he said, of the biggest war in Europe since the end of World War II eight decades ago.

He also reiterated his clarification, "I'm not here to negotiate for Ukraine. I'm here to get them at a table."

He also said that he would raise Russia's continuing attacks on Ukraine even as diplomatic efforts were on.

"It actually hurts him, but in his mind, that helps him make a better deal if they could continue the killing," he added.

He said it is in his genes to act like that.

Trump added sternly, "I'll be talking to him about it."

As they sat down for their meeting, reporters shouted out questions to Putin about the continuing carnage in Ukraine and he appeared to say something that was not audible on the video.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, who will not be at the face-to-face talks between Trump and Putin, echoed Trump's characterisation of the talks, posting on X, "Indeed, high stakes."

He added, "The key thing is that this meeting should open up a real path toward a just peace and a substantive discussion between leaders in a trilateral format -- Ukraine, the United States, and the Russian side. It is time to end the war."

Trump said on Thursday that he expected there would be a quick second summit with Zelensky, Putin, and, possibly, some European leaders if there was progress in his meeting with the Russian leader.

But he has also warned Putin of "very severe consequences" if there were no ceasefire.

En route to Anchorage, Putin stopped at Magadan in Russia's far east, where he symbolically placed flowers at a monument honouring US and Soviet pilots ferrying supplies from the US to Russia during World War II, when the two countries were allies.

Putin said on Thursday that Trump has been making "fairly vigorous and sincere efforts to halt hostilities, resolve the crisis, and reach agreements that serve the interests of all parties involved in this conflict".

This will be Putin's first visit to the US after a decade. He was last in the US when he had met former President Barack Obama after a United Nations General Assembly meeting in 2015.

He had met Trump at least six times during his first term and this will be the first direct contact in Trump's second term.

A ceasefire hinges on two main factors: Land swap or re-drawing of borders that would give Russia some Ukrainian territories, and a security guarantee from Europeans and the US for Ukraine.

--IANS

al/khz