Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have met at the airport in Anchorage, Alaska, where their talks are due to begin shortly. This is their first face-to-face meeting since 2019.

According to the White House, it will be held in a three-on-three format - the U.S. side is also represented by Secretary of State Mark Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff, while the Russian side is represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and presidential aide Yuri Ushakov. Both delegations will then have an extended working lunch followed by a press conference to summarize the talks. The White House said Trump will leave Alaska as early as Friday evening (9:45 p.m. ET).

The meeting is being held without the participation of Ukrainian officials. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy said before the summit that Kiev was counting on Trump.

Trump himself earlier called the key goal of the meeting a ceasefire in Ukraine in any form, Bloomberg wrote. During his flight to Alaska, he told reporters that the issue of territorial exchanges was not for him to decide, but for Ukraine, and his goal was to bring the parties to the table. The U.S. president also did not rule out that Ukraine could get some kind of security guarantees from Western countries. "Not in the NATO format <...> But security guarantees are possible together with Europe," Trump was quoted by Reuters as saying.

What's important for markets

Earlier this week, Trump warned that if the initial talks in Alaska were successful, he would seek a trilateral meeting involving Zelensky and possibly key European leaders. But he warned that Putin could face "very serious consequences" if he refuses to stop strikes in Ukraine. The consequences could include sanctions against major buyers of Russian oil, such as China, the WSJ notes.

If negotiations break down or escalate into new sanctions, the market will see a sharp rise in oil prices, warned Capital.com senior analyst Daniela Sabine Hathorn. The Citi analyst estimated that stricter oil sanctions against Russia could push Brent prices above $80, Barron's wrote.

The recovery in oil prices may be an opportunity to bet on a subsequent decline in the cost of raw materials, says Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett, his opinion quotes MarketWatch. The announcement of the Alaska meeting has already partially contributed to the price drop, bringing it to 12.6% YTD, Hartnett notes. Energy traders have already built the summit into their expectations of a resumption of Russian oil supplies, he said. If the U.S. and Russia agree to cooperate to tap unexplored reserves, the BofA strategist predicts the bear market will intensify.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor

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