Belarus, US presidents hold pre-summit phone conversation

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko held a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump ahead of the highly anticipated summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, scheduled for August 15 in Anchorage, Alaska.

“Lukashenko and Trump spoke on the phone,” the brief statement by Belarus media read, without providing further details regarding the content or duration of the conversation, Caliber.Az reports.

The timing of the call is significant, coming just hours before Trump’s face-to-face meeting with Putin—a summit widely viewed as a critical moment in shaping the future of US-Russia relations, particularly amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and rising geopolitical tensions.

According to reports, President Trump has already departed from Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, DC, en route to Anchorage. Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, was last seen in Magadan, where he toured a local enterprise and chaired a working meeting before preparing for his journey to the United States.

The summit in Anchorage is expected to begin at 11:00 a.m. local time (22:00 p.m. Moscow time) and will be Putin’s first visit to the US in over a decade. While the agenda has not been fully disclosed, the war in Ukraine, arms control, and the future of NATO are expected to dominate the discussions.

By Vafa Guliyeva