Georgian speaker says Alaska meeting confirms Russia-West confrontation

The recent meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump demonstrated that, with sufficient political will, the conflict in Ukraine could have been prevented, Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said.

“If peace were possible and if the American president had leverage over the process, this confirms that there is a war between Russia and the West. This opinion is not new, but the meeting between the presidents confirmed and formalised it,” he noted, Caliber.Az reports, citing Georgian media.

He added that the summit highlighted the kind of confrontation that Georgia has been drawn into by “foreign friends-enemies” and local actors serving their own interests.

Papuashvili warned that the goal of certain plans was to manipulate Georgia into a pawn in the broader geopolitical struggle, describing scenarios including the use of a "window of opportunity," a "rain of bombs," and the "detention of ten thousand Russian soldiers," which would place Georgia in harm’s way for the next moves on the global chessboard.

The Alaska summit on August 15 brought together Putin and Trump, along with senior officials from both sides. The Russian delegation included Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, while Trump was accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff.

This was the first meeting between the two leaders in six years, following their previous encounter in Osaka in June 2019.

Putin described the discussions as “useful and thorough,” emphasizing the need to restore cooperation with the United States. Trump said that although the two sides had reached an understanding on many issues, no formal agreements were finalized during the summit.

By Tamilla Hasanova