Trump eyes summit with Xi-Putin, shaking up world order

Usa news desk: With Kyiv and European capitals still stunned by Trump’s surprise call with Putin, the US president also said he would ‘love’ to have Russia back in the G7,from which it was suspended in 2014 after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.

‘I think it was a mistake to throw him out,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office,referring to Putin. Trump — who has cast himself in his second term as a global peacemaker — also said he would consider a summit with Putin and China’s Xi Jinping ‘when things calm down.’

‘When we straighten it all out, then I want one of the first meetings I have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia. And I want to say, let’s cut our military budget in half.’ The US president, who was hosting India’s Prime Minister Nahendra Modi at the White House later Thursday, also called for the three powers to start cutting their nuclear arsenals.

‘There’s no reason for us to be building brand-new nuclear weapons,’ he added.Trump meanwhile insisted the Russian leader wanted a ceasefire with Kyiv, despite President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday warning against trusting the Kremlin leader. ‘I think he wants peace. I think he would tell me if he didn’t,’ Trump said.

Trump made his comments after inking plans for sweeping ‘reciprocal tariffs’ that could hit both allies and competitors. His remarks on Russia and China mark a seismic shift after more than a decade of US
policy which had increasingly cast Moscow into the cold and largely viewed both it and Beijing as adversaries.