Donald Trump says he’ll meet Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia for Ukraine war negotiations

Good morning! The world leader du jour in Washington is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is expected to offer US President Donald Trump deals on trade, energy and defence during their meeting later. In the meantime, let’s get into:

Another day, another foreign policy rollercoaster.

Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone yesterday for about 90 minutes. The result? A dramatic change in the US-Russia relationship.

Trump said Washington and Moscow would begin negotiations “immediately” on ending the war in Ukraine. 

He also said the two presidents would meet in person in Saudi Arabia for talks hosted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It would mark the first US-Russia summit since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in 2021. Trump also expects the two leaders to visit each other in Russia and the US.

That the US president spoke to his Russian counterpart before his Ukrainian one suggested Washington may sideline Kyiv and the EU in its efforts to bring Moscow to the negotiating table. 

Now, Putin gets to have his Yalta moment.

The Russian president is closer than ever to getting what he wanted from his invasion of Ukraine: giving Russia a sphere of influence in Europe, just as that historic conference did for the Soviet Union at the end of the second world war [free to read].

Trump’s US is open to letting Putin have it. The Kremlin said the two leaders discussed “bilateral economic co-operation”, suggesting Washington is prepared to pare back its Russia sanctions.

Meanwhile, the Europeans were blindsided by Trump and fear they’ll have to pay for postwar security and reconstruction while being left out of the Ukraine negotiations.

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said yesterday that Washington “does not believe Nato membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome” and that a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was an “unrealistic objective”. Kyiv has demanded Nato membership as a security guarantee against future Russian aggression.

Hegseth also said US troops would not be deployed to Ukraine after the war ended and instead “capable European and non-European troops” should ensure peace.

The latest headlines

What we’re hearing

Donald Trump’s pledge to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet” has sent bitcoin’s price skyrocketing to six-figure highs.

Banks and money managers want a piece of the bonanza, as investors hope Trump will turn the token into a mainstream financial asset and usher in a golden era for crypto. 

For Wall Street, the most mouth-watering part of this is the prospect of a national bitcoin stockpile, which would give the token the US government’s seal of approval and probably send its price even higher. Spearheading this effort in Washington is US senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming.

A reserve asset is typically a critical resource that can be used in a crisis — think petroleum or gold. Lummis has said that the token’s rising value could be used to cut US debt.

But others are already worried: prominent hedge fund Elliott warned that Trump’s love for crypto would lead to an “inevitable collapse” that “could wreak havoc in ways we cannot yet anticipate”.

“It’s a very strange idea,” American University law professor Hilary Allen told the FT’s Nassos Stylianou and Nikou Asgari. “We need something that isn’t going to be inflated away, something hard and real in reserve. What’s ridiculous is that nothing could be less hard or real than bitcoin.”

The US government holds almost 200,000 bitcoins that it has seized through criminal investigations. It has previously sold chunks of its holdings at auction, but bitcoin fans hope the government will resist selling them off — and even start buying them.

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