It was a meeting of the two titans. On the morning of August 15, Russian president Vladimir Putin landed at Anchorage Airport in Alaska. US president Donald Trump stood on the carpet awaiting his guest’s arrival, and Putin, alighting from the plane, set the tone and tempo for the summit with his “dear neighbour”. So far, Trump hasn’t accorded the honour of a personal welcome to even any of his Western allies.

Many started drawing positive conclusions about the summit from the body language of the two leaders. But the Alaska summit, of which expectations had been high, failed to reach a conclusion and has left behind a fog of new concerns. There’s a host of reasons for such a conclusion.

The summit was expected to last for five to six hours, but it ended within three hours. A day earlier, Trump had said he wouldn’t be happy if a ceasefire (in the Ukraine war) didn’t materialise from the summit. He had even threatened Russia with harsher sanctions if there was no ceasefire. However, his threats proved ineffective. During the press conference, he grudgingly accepted that while they made some progress, many important issues........

© hindustantimes