Trump thanks Putin for Iran 'neutrality,' immediately challenging G7 claims of tone shift
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EVIAN, France — U.S. President Donald Trump, fixated on Iran in a one-hour press conference at the end of the G7 summit, thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for supposedly not helping Iran as much as he could have.
Convergence on priorities and Trump's changed tone on Ukraine were cited as the main outcomes of the G7 summit.
For the less than two minutes that Trump spoke about Ukraine, he called the June 16 discussion on Ukraine "a productive conversation," and did not criticize President Volodymyr Zelensky.
However, Trump positioned himself more as a neutral party than as unambiguously pro-Ukrainian, the latter of which was the position of the rest of the G7 table.
"We (sic.) had a very good conversation with President Putin and a very, very good conversation with President Zelensky. I think they both want to do something. They just don't know how to do it," Trump said.
Trump mentioned that he had called with Putin on June 14, ahead of the summit.
The only other reference to Putin that Trump made during his press conference was regarding Iran.
Trump thanked Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Putin for "staying neutral" on Iran.
"I want to thank Vladimir Putin. He was very neutral. They could have made it much more difficult for us," Trump said.
In a press conference on June 16, a senior EU official told journalists on the condition of anonymity that the "Iran deal allowed us to pull the focus to Ukraine again."
Trump's press conference the day after shows that if Ukraine had been at the front of his mind the day before, it did not remain so.
And in a further blow to those who hoped Trump had fully embraced the European position on Ukraine, a hotly anticipated second bilateral meeting with Zelensky did not materialize.
Before returning to the U.S., Trump is scheduled to go to France's Versailles Palace for dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron. Zelensky is headed to Belgium, where he will be welcomed by the Belgian king on June 18 ahead of a summit of EU leaders, which he is expected to join.
