Security experts sound that China and the rest of the international community keep a close eye on how President Donald Trump deals with Russian President Vladimir Putin after their meeting in Alaska Friday.
The White House said in the run -up to the conversations that the meeting was a “listening exercise”, and Trump confirmed that he would neither make neither deals nor concessions if he would speak with Putin.
But security experts have warned that this meeting will have consequences that go beyond the war in Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin while they meet to put an end to the war in Ukraine with Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, August 15, 2025. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
“Every concession would undoubtedly serve as an incentive for the PRC [People’s Republic of China] To follow a hostile path in the Indo-Pacific, because the risk of serious consequences would be experienced considerably lower. ”
Trump said that he would mention his European and Ukrainian counterparts immediately after the discussions based on anchoring and that he hoped that the next step would be for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zenskyy and Putin to meet personally, possibly together with Trump and other European leaders.
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But there is also speculation about whether the president will try to close his own deal with Russia, namely in the field of critical minerals, where Trump wants to combat Chinese competition.
Trump would not answer any questions on Thursday about the question of whether he will look for critical minerals, instead telling reporters: “We will see what happens to that meeting.”
But the optics of Trump that closes a business deal with Russia, while Putin refuses to end his deadly ambitions in Ukraine, can be seen as the help of the war box of Moscow and could further point to Chinese President Xi Jinping that Trump’s strategic -SEPERTIST “A Experttie in the Eastern warned.
A member of the people’s liberation army looks through binoculars during military exercises with Taiwan’s frigate Lan Yang in the background on August 5, 2022. (Lin Jian/Xinhua via AP)
“China will exploit that doubt and strengthen a ‘deal-over-Deterrenence’ story and penetrating coordination gaps from Tokyo and Seoul to Manila.
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“If Washington is seen as ‘sold out’ Ukraine, Beijing will learn a simple lesson: forced payments and can be retained,” Singleton added. “In that case Beijing can occur [military] Attachments around Taiwan and intensification of the pressure of the gray zone to gauge how much stability Washington will act for silence. “
But there is another element for the meetings that are concerned about security experts – the absence of Zenskyy.
Although the meeting was apparently pushed by Putin, who has so far refused to meet Zolenskyy, despite the calls of the Ukrainian president to do this, his absence in discussing a war that took place on the ground of his country would speak to China.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping Shake Hands at the Brics -Top in Kazan, Tatarstan Republic, Russia. (Getty Images)
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“From the Perspective of Beijing, leaving Zelenskyy broadens the lane for a facial -saving freezing that locks in the Russian battlefield profit, an implicit nod that big forces can revise boundaries with violence,” Singleton said. “Beijing will welcome it quietly and notice that Washington has entertained settlements without KYIV, a precedent that it will grab for Asia.”
He eventually argued: “If aggression in Europe pays, deterrence discounts in Asia.”
“For Beijing, the Alaska meeting is the message. Negotiating great powers about smaller states normalizes the World Order Chinese leader Xi Jinping,” Singleton added.
