Branding himself an international peacemaker, President Donald Trump is preparing to sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss putting an end to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The meeting, however, is likely to be fraught with geopolitical tensions, especially as European politicians weigh in with their own agendas. As The Washington Stand previously observed, the deadline Trump had established for Putin to agree to a ceasefire — Friday, August 8 — has come and gone. Subsequently, Trump announced that he would meet with Putin in Alaska on Friday, August 15, to negotiate an end to the conflict.

The announcement was quickly followed by a host of European officials and diplomats meeting with U.S. officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance, to present their own concerns ahead of the meeting. According to some reports, European politicians support an end to the conflict but are lobbying the White House to secure a ceasefire before brokering any other peace deals — insisting that any territory Ukraine agrees to cede must be matched by Russia surrendering land. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has scheduled an emergency call between Trump and European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, for Wednesday. The call is reportedly to emphasize that a ceasefire be agreed to before peace talks, that both Ukraine and Russia surrender land captured over the course of the conflict, and that Russia guarantees no further aggression against Ukraine.

On Saturday’s episode of “This Week on Capitol Hill,” former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and National Security Advisor during Trump’s first term, John Bolton, said that the planned Trump-Putin meeting “gives Putin a real opportunity to try to influence Trump and to break free of the pariah status that he’s had since the Russian invasion back in 2022.” He added, “I think that what Putin wants to do at this upcoming meeting is try and restore his relationship with Trump. I think whether he intended it or not, Putin obviously pushed beyond the envelope of what Trump was willing to accept.”

Bolton continued: “And I think Putin wants to repair that, and I think he will try and gain the advantage over Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, perhaps by presenting the Russian peace plan — so-called — for a solution to the war, or at least something in the nature of a ceasefire, so that Putin can say to Trump, ‘See, I’m with you on this,’ and try and paint Zelensky and Ukraine as the obstructionists.”

Concerning the potential outcome of Friday’s meeting, Bolton said, “I think we don’t want to disadvantage Ukraine. They’re the ones who had aggression committed against them,” adding, “I think we need to be very careful not to put them in a hard position right at the beginning of the talks.”

In addition to economic sanctions against Russia, Trump has also raised tariffs on India, citing India’s financial support for Russia through oil purchases. Bolton commented, “I think the use of tariffs to achieve foreign policy objectives is certainly permissible — and probably we should have been doing more of it before.” However, he continued, “Unfortunately, I think we may have two strategic objectives conflicting with one another. We’ve been trying to pull India away from Russia and away from China for some time, and I think this is going to drive the Indians back in the wrong direction.” Bolton explained, “I think we’ve also got to keep in mind not just the politics of Eastern and Central Europe, which are very important to the United States, but China as well. China has been a bigger aider of Russia in this aggression against Ukraine than India.”

Bolton also noted that peaceably resolving the Russia-Ukraine conflict allows the U.S. to shift its geopolitical focus once again to China. The former ambassador said that “the isolationist stripe” of Trump’s voter base “who say we should forget about Europe, forget about the Middle East, just worry about China, ignore the fact that if we can actually bring productive solutions in Europe, in the Middle East — ending Iran’s nuclear and terrorist threat — then we’ll have more time and attention to be able to devote to China, which is the main threat we’re facing.”