President Vladimir Putin has walked away as a "clear winner" out of the Alaska Summit held at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage on Friday, experts have told Sputnik India after the conclusion of discussions between the Russian leader and President Donald Trump.
Experts said that Ukraine's de-facto leader Volodymyr Zelensky and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), specifically the European allies, had lost significant leverage in shaping the outcome of the Ukraine conflict after the three hour-long Putin-Trump talks, their first in-person meeting in the US President's second term. This was also Putin's first visit to the US since 2015, marking a formal resumption of leadership contacts between the two neighbours.
Savio Rodrigues, a politician from India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told Sputnik India that Putin was able to impress upon Trump that a final settlement to the Ukraine conflict will have to be on Russia's terms, regardless of what Ukraine and European allies say.
"Right from the start of the Ukraine Conflict, President Putin has been very clear and precise in his objectives, which he also spelled out at the joint press statement with President Trump after their talks in Anchorage -eliminating the root causes of the conflict, including NATO's expansion and a neutral status for Ukraine," Rodrigues stated.
He reckoned that the Russian President showed his "resolve" and "refused to give in to US demands", prompting the US President to admit that no deal could be reached and a significant issue remains unresolved.
However, Rodrigues expects Zelensky and European allies, who have floated the 'Coalition of the Willing' to sustain military support to Ukraine, to offer some opposition to evolving Russia-US understanding.
"But, if Zelensky continues to drag his feet on a peace settlement and refuses to cede ground in peace efforts, the Trump administration may have to sacrifice Zelensky in the larger interest of peace. As the biggest funder of Ukraine and the biggest arms supplier of Ukraine till now, the US still wields significant leverage in shaping the outcomes," the Indian politician stated.
Referring to Trump's appeal to Zelensky to "make a deal" with Russia (in an interview with Fox News) following the Alaska talks, the Indian politician said that Trump has to "neutralise" any resistance from the European allies if he wanted to uphold his election pledge of brokering peace in Ukraine.
"But the bottom line is that peace in Ukraine will happen on Russia's terms, which has become even more clear with the Alaska Summit," he said.
During the joint presser with Putin, Trump said there wasn't any "deal" yet. In his Fox News interview after the Alaska talks, Trump said that he and Putin largely agreed on "land swaps".
Significantly, Putin agreed with the US President that the conflict wouldn't have erupted had Trump been the President instead of Biden at the time.
Lieutenant Colonel JS Sodhi (Retired), an Indian Army veteran and author, also stated that President Putin emerged as the "clear winner" from the Alaska meeting.
"This is for the simple reason that he seems to have been able to convince President Trump that any further expansion of NATO would be a detriment to peace in Europe. While we don't have the exact specifics of the meeting yet, the statements at the joint presser, the chemistry between Putin and Trump as well as the body languages of both the leaders indicate that Putin has set the record straight- that a settlement on Ukraine will have to be on Russian terms," Sodhi told Sputnik.
He said that the current battlefield realities favoured Russia. Further, Sodhi noted that Russia has been attacked diplomatically and economically by western allies in recent years. "Its core security interests have been ignored by the EU and NATO. The US has gone back on the promise made by former Secretary of State James Baker to then Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, which is that NATO won't expand eastwards at the time," he recalled.
The expert underscored that neither Zelensky nor Brussels held any leverage over the final settlement anymore.
"The ceasefire is being directly negotiated between Putin and Trump now," Sodhi stated, while noting that parameters of a future three-way meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelensky have already been drawn at the Alaska Summit.
"I don't believe that the EU and Kiev, or the so-called 'Coalition of the Willing', will be able to prolong the war without American political and military support. Even though they have the funds, the US still remains the main and the biggest supplier of military weapons and other expertise.
I think the Alaska Summit has paved the way for an early resolution of the Ukraine conflict, which will happen on Russia's terms," the Indian expert concluded.