Envoys for United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have met at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, amid reports that the signing of a $800bn “prosperity plan” was postponed due to tensions over Greenland.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said Moscow would not comment on talks in Davos, but stressed the importance for Russia of receiving information on discussions between the US, European leaders and Ukraine.
Russian state-run news agency TASS reported that US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev met on Tuesday for more than two hours on the forum’s sidelines.
The agency quoted Witkoff as saying the talks had been “very positive”.
Later, Witkoff told The Associated Press news agency that he and Kushner were planning to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Ukrainian delegation on Thursday.
The Kremlin confirmed that the meeting that will take place in Moscow was on Putin’s schedule.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom’s Financial Times (FT) newspaper reported on Wednesday that tensions in the NATO alliance over Trump’s bid to acquire Greenland had derailed the signing of a Ukraine reconstruction plan, which was originally scheduled to take place in Davos.
The so-called “prosperity plan” to be agreed between Ukraine, Europe and the US was not being shelved indefinitely and could still be signed at a later date, the newspaper added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday he would travel to Davos only if documents on security guarantees with the US and a “prosperity plan” were ready to be signed there.
The president said he would instead remain in Kyiv to oversee relief efforts, as Russian missile and drone attacks continued to batter Ukraine’s energy system.
Credit: aljazeera.com
