The Alaska Report Card: First assessment of who won what, and how

That was especially odd for President Trump, who loves to give long, impromptu press conferences every day.

The stage in Alaska’s US military base was set with “Pursuing Peace” as the backdrop, but it did not, it seems, lead to any immediate concrete outcome.

Trump, however, said that he would talk to leaders of NATO countries, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and others and brief them on his conversation with Putin.

So, in the absence of many details, and based on the statements of the two leaders and their import, this is how the summit in Alaska may be read.

Vladimir Putin: largely a win; objectives of trade and security advanced

For Putin, this was a win from the start. His swagger on the red carpet that awaited him, and the handshake with the US President at a US military base on US soil said it all. He had won the first battle of perception — that he was no longer a global outcast, shunned and sanctioned for invading Ukraine, and terrorising Europe about what he plans to do next.

He got a US Air Force welcome with a B-2 bomber and F-22 Raptors, and was honoured by Trump as an equal, a peer, a fellow head of state, and not somebody who is accused of war crimes in the middle of a bloody ongoing war.

Putin was clear in his objective: he wanted the sanctions on Russia lifted. And he came prepared with a delegation of businessmen and advisers who deal with the business dealings of the Russian state.

While the circle of advisors in the meeting was small, the Russian leader underlined the trade and business component very clearly in his remarks.

President Donald Trump greets Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. (Photo: AP)

He said that Russia-US trade had started to grow under Trump, even though the growth rate was not high currently. “Our trade started to grow after the new US administration came to power. So far, it’s merely symbolic, but it’s still a rise of 20%. I mean that we have a lot of promising areas for joint work,” he said.

Putin also said that Russia and the US have a lot to offer each other in various areas of cooperation.

“Russia-US business and investment cooperation clearly has a lot of potential. Russia and the US have a lot to offer each other in trade, the energy sector, the digital industry, high technology and space exploration. Arctic cooperation also looks relevant, as well as the resumption of interregional ties, particularly between Russia’s Far East and the US West Coast.”

This was a clear indication of what he wants from the negotiations with the US, as his priority number 1.

Putin’s other important objective is “security”, and he underlined that as well in his comments.

He said that Russia was ready to work to ensure Ukraine’s security as well: “I agree with President Trump — he has spoken about it today — that Ukraine’s security also needs to be ensured. We are certainly ready to work on that.”

What Putin did not say — and what he obviously meant — was that Ukraine’s security umbrella should be with Moscow’s approval, and that implied its membership of NATO, or the presence of any NATO troops in Ukraine’s periphery, was ruled out.

Donald Trump: some incremental progress; nothing to brag about as yet

For Trump, the meeting in Alaska was supposed to be the biggest stage for his self-acclaimed deal-making, and he wanted to be seen before the world as the ultimate peacemaker that he believes himself to be.

What he did achieve was to get the Russian President to the table to talk about ending the war.

That was an incremental step forward for the American President — Putin announced that Russia was interested in putting an end to the crisis: “Our country is sincerely interested in ending it all.”

But Trump got no guarantees beyond that — not in public statements, at least. If he had hoped to close a straight deal on ending the war, that did not happen.

To be fair, the US President had moderated expectations ahead of the summit, saying that it would be a “feel-out meeting” with Russia’s leader. It was possibly the other way around though — it was Putin who “felt out” and took a measure of Trump.

In an interview given to Fox News’ Sean Hannity, the President said that the meeting was a “10” — even though the vibes and the statements in Alaska did not give others the confidence of that high score.

Fox News reporters, who are mostly aligned closely with Trump’s agenda and voice, talked down the meeting.

The planned luncheon after the discussions — the officials had rationed about 6 to 7 hours — was cancelled, and both Presidents made quick exits from Alaska, which was another indication that the result was not a win for the US.

The leaders of Europe and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will now be waiting for a briefing from the US President and his aides. They would be counting on the fact that their own pre-briefing and their warnings that Putin was not serious about “pursuing peace”, would have become clear to the US President.

Trump had warned that Russia would face “very severe consequences” if he determined during the summit that Russia’s leader was not serious about ending the war. Zelenskyy will certainly remind Trump of that statement.

President Donald Trump walks onto a stage with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. (Photo: AP)

India: Suspense continues; the good news is there is no bad news, for now

For India, it was a night on the edge. South Block tracked the meeting closely, and Indian interlocutors will be reaching out to their American and Russian counterparts to get a sense of what happened behind closed doors.

India faces a 50 per cent tariff — 25 per cent as “penalty” for buying Russian oil — and therefore has a clear stake on the outcome of the meeting.

Trump, after all, seems to believe that his squeezing of India by slapping the 25 per cent tariff brought Russia to the table. US officials, including the Treasury Secretary, have warned that in case there is no deal, an even higher penalty might be imposed.

But a glimmer of hope did seem to appear in Putin’s statement that the agreements reached in Alaska “will be the starting point for resolving the Ukraine issue” and improving Russia-US relations.

Trump himself described the meeting as “productive”. But he acknowledged that the two leaders fell short, at least for now. “We haven’t quite got there, but we’ve made some headway…There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” he said.

For New Delhi, this little headway is important — and offers some hope of the pressure easing.