TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: “Mr President, do you think sanctions on Russia will force President Putin to negotiate?”
TRUMP: “I don't know, but I think he should make a deal.”
That's United States President Donald Trump in an exchange with reporters via videolink at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Mr Trump also wants to see China do more to pressure Russia to end the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022.
He says he's spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping in a phone call and discussed the issue.
"They have a lot of power over Russia. They supply energy to Russia. So I think Russia should want to make a deal. Maybe they want to make a deal. I think, from what I hear, Putin would like to see me and will meet as soon as we can. I'd meet immediately. Every day we don't meet, soldiers are being killed in a battlefield. And that battlefield is like no battlefield since World War II. Soldiers are being killed on a daily basis in numbers that we have not seen in decades. It would be nice to end that war. It's a ridiculous war."
Mr Trump says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also spoken to him, saying he's ready to make a deal to end the war.
Meanwhile NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte says he is confident Europe will pay for U-S arms to supply Ukraine if needed in their battle against Russia.
Mr Rutte says President Trump is right in his assessment of the region's importance, suggesting NATO needs a holistic strategy to combat Russian and Chinese influence in the region.
The NATO boss says Western countries must continue to arm Ukraine, arguing a failure to do so will be more expensive in the long run.
“We have to make sure that Ukraine can negotiate from a position of strength and we have to prop them up. And if the US will decide to spend, to do more in terms of weapons support, I am convinced that they will also ask the Europeans to pay more. And this is only logical because we are close to Ukraine and we have to.”
Ukraine is seeking security guarantees from its allies as part of any potential peace deal to end the war.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says support could include at least 200,000 European peacekeepers.
But Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesman, Heorhii Tykhyi, says such talks are only in their early stages.
"From Ukraine's point of view, foreign military contingents can be a part of security guarantees for Ukraine, but not the only part, not the only element. This can be an element in the system of security guarantees for Ukraine, and the aim of those guarantees should be, one and main aim is to prevent Russia from attacking Ukraine again."
On Thursday Russia rejected the idea of NATO countries sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire in the war with Russia, saying such a move would threaten to cause an uncontrollable escalation.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, says there needs to be equal and respectful dialogue with Russia.
“We are watching very closely all the rhetoric and all the statements, we carefully watch all the nuances, we remain ready for dialogue, President Putin has repeatedly spoken about this, for an equal dialogue, for a mutually respectful dialogue. This dialogue took place between the two presidents during Trump’s first presidency. And we are waiting for signals that we have not received yet.”
On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis says the EU wants to do more to engage with the new U-S administration.
President Trump has taken aim at the European Union, which he says treats America "very badly" through its tax arrangements.
Despite his concerns, Mr Trump also says he will guarantee Europe's supply of Liquefied Natural Gas, or LNG, which has been placed under pressure by Western sanctions on Russia.
Mr Dombrovskis says the relationship with the US was very helpful in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.
"It must be said that the US came in very helpfully in 2022 Russia was trying to use their natural gas supplies as a weapon of blackmail and manipulation, and we needed to urgently move away from this dependency on Russian gas. So we're seeking alternative suppliers, and the US is now our largest LNG supplier, supplying more than half of our LNG, and actually Europe is the largest destination of US LNG. So we had a good cooperation over the last couple of years and from our side we are ready to see how to further that.”
Mr Trump also told the Davos meeting he wants to work towards cutting nuclear arms, adding that he thought Russia and China might support reducing their own weapons capabilities.