Transcription
MARK STRASSMANN, thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate your time.
BREAKING right now, new details on that phone call between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The phone call lasted for close to two hours. Remember, the White House is looking to ink a deal and put an end to the bloodshed taking over the region. That phone call is making a step. Ed, good to see you. What do you know?
The headline out of this statement from the White House is that they appearappeared to agree, the President and the Russian leader, on a ceasefire for what I'll describe as energy and infrastructure, and negotiations over peace will begin immediately in the Middle East. The statement saying President Trump and Putin spoke about the need for peace and a cease-fire in the Ukraine war. Both leaders think this conflict needs to end, with a last, that the blood and the conflict never should have started and should have ended long ago with sincere and good faith peace efforts. The movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure cease-fire as well as technical imputations on a maritime cease-fire in the Black Sea, full cease-fire and permanent peace. These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East. It's said the two of them spoke broadly about the Middle East to get conflicts. The two leaders shared the view that Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israeli. The two leaders agreed that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside, including enormous deals and stability. They're not weighing it explicitly, but it likes like Russia is agrees to the cease-fire arrangement and talks will be held in the Middle East. We'll see if it's Saudi Arabia or somewhere else. As expected, this call also touched on the overnight hos hostilities. The broader coal of renews and with get. So we'll wait for more details on where exactly these cease-fire talks would commence, what exactly did Russia ask for during the call, what else was discussed. There is some reporting from the Russia news agency that the two presidents agreed to keep in touch. There may be some kind of prisoner of war swap being prepared between Russia and Ukraine. And they will keep talking about what part of Ukraine's territory exactly is really up for discussion. A sign this was successful call in that there are more agreements to keep talking. We also will wait for what the Ukrainians make of this and whether they are party to these talks and who exactly from the Ukrainian side might be involved in those. There is no current plan for Melania Trump to talk to Zelenskyy. It's resulted in this call that, as you said, lasted under two hours. Started around 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. We had been told it would begin between 9:00 and 11:00 Eastern Time.
ED O'KEEFE live for us from the White House with some breaking.
Now let's bring in Mark from the City of Strategic and International Studies. Thank you for joining us. I want to read a piece of what was just said from the White House. The leaders agree that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and electric cease-fire as well as technical negotiations of implementation on the Black Sea and. Your reaction to this?
It's encouraging because two countries are talking. There's no indication in the whole statement that there are any bitterness or breakoff of talks. We talked about continuing the discussions, but it's disappointing, because they could not agree to a three-day cease-fire. They agreed to stop attacking each other's infrastructure and energy. Boat sides have been attacking the infrastructure. Then they said they'll continue talks about a cease-fire. Sounds like the first thing will be some sort of maritime cease-fire and then a peace settlement. So this is the first step of what's probably -- many people thought it would stop at this point. It's not going to.
You did point out they did not agree to that 30-day cease-fire deal that Ukraine said they are willing to accept. If your opinion, do you think this is a positive step to hopefully to end this war?
It's certainly a positive step. Ending a tax on infrastructure and energy is an important reduction in the suffering of civil vans on both sides. So that's good in itself. Just isn't the big step I think that many hoped for.
Right. I want to bring back the topic of Ukraine here, because initially Volodymyr Zelenskyy had said yes he is open to that 30-day cease-fire deal. Now they're not. Do you think at some point Ukraine will be brought back to the table to continue these discussions?
Well, I certainly hope so. It would be fair that when its future is being discussed that it have a role in the discussion of that future. President Trump has preferred to deal one on one. He deals with President Zelenskyy, deals with President Putin. We'll see what happens in the Middle East when they continue these discussions. Although I would certainly hope they bring in Ukraine and also Europe. President Trump's approach has been one on one.
So in your opinion, in your exper expertise, what should come next in your opinion?
It sounds like a next step is another meeting in the Middle East like they had a week ago. And maybe they can do something on the maritime cease-fire, maybe even on the 30-day cease-fire. But that's probably as far as they're going to get. This is looking to be a very long process. Keep in mind that the negotiations to end the war in Korea and the war in Vietnam took years.
So it sounds like there is way, way, way,