Washington [US], July 15: US President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Russia if it does not reach a deal to end the conflict with Ukraine within 50 days, and announced a deal to produce weapons for Ukraine, at the expense of NATO.
The Guardian newspaper on the evening of July 14 quoted US President Donald Trump as saying that the US would impose "very serious tariffs" on Russia in 50 days if there was no agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine.
Sitting next to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump told reporters that he was disappointed in Russian President Vladimir Putin .
"We're going to put additional tariffs in place. If we don't make a deal in 50 days, it's simple. The tariffs will be 100%, and that's it," the White House boss said. According to him, trade is "a great thing for settling wars."
The US president said he spoke to the Russian leader "a lot", but added that "talking doesn't mean anything".
"My conversations with them were always very pleasant. . A very nice conversation. Then that night, the missiles went off. I went home and told the first lady that I had spoken to Vladimir (Putin), we had a great conversation. And she said, 'Oh, really? Another city just got hit,'" Trump said.
President Trump hopes President Putin will make "a fair deal," saying his Russian counterpart "knows what a fair deal is."
Regarding the issue of support for Ukraine, Mr. Trump said the US would send top-notch weapons to NATO to help Ukraine counter Russia. He added that NATO members would pay for the "best equipment" and that the deal did not only include the Patriot missile system.
The Ukrainian conflict continues to be a "very deadly war" and he thought he had reached an agreement four times, but fighting continued. The leader confirmed that Patriot systems would be sent to Ukraine "in the next few days".
"I want to state again. I said this is not Mr. Trump's war. We are here to try to end and settle," Mr. Trump emphasized.
For his part, Mr. Rutte said Ukraine would receive "a huge amount" of military equipment in the deal with the United States. He said President Trump called him on July 10 to say he wanted to give Ukraine what it needed, but Europe would have to pay.
According to Mr Rutte, it is completely reasonable and this time "Europe stands up again". He said he had contacted many countries that wanted to join the agreement, including Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the UK, the Netherlands and Canada.
"This is just the first wave and there will be more," he said, adding that NATO would make sure it understood what Ukraine needed.
"That means Ukraine will have access to a very large amount of military equipment, both air defense and missiles and ammunition," he said.
Additionally, he said that President Putin should take President Trump 's remarks seriously .
"So if I were Mr Putin today , and he was talking about what he was going to do in the next 50 days with this statement, I would have to reconsider whether I should be more serious in the negotiations on Ukraine than I am doing now," Mr Rutte suggested.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
