Direct talks with Putin are part of 'Trump Doctrine' - Vance

RT
Sat, 15 Nov 2025 04:26 UTC

© Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

US Vice President J.D.Vance talks to reporters • US Capitol • Washington, DC • October 28, 2025

The US vice president dismissed criticism of the decision to resume direct negotiations with Russia.

US Vice President J.D. Vance has defended US President Donald Trump's decision to open direct negotiations with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as an important step toward peace in Ukraine.

Some EU officials have criticized Trump's meeting with Putin in Alaska in August, with the bloc's top diplomat Kaja Kallas suggesting that the US president was walking into Moscow's "trap."

Vance told Fox News' Sean Hannity in an interview aired Friday:

"I've heard so many people criticize the president of the United States for talking to Vladimir Putin. You don't have to agree with Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine, but if you want to bring about peace, you've got to be strong, and you've also got to talk to people."

Vance said Trump's foreign policy strategy combines his peace-through-strength approach with openness to negotiations in good faith.

"His doctrine is to have the strongest military in the world, to focus on peace, but not to allow the DC press corps to tell you who you're allowed to talk to and how you're allowed to engage in diplomacy."

Trump has abandoned the previous administration's attempts at isolating Russia on the world stage and restarted direct talks with Moscow earlier this year. He also pressured Ukraine to revive negotiations with Russia, which Kiev suspended in the spring of 2022.

Although the Alaska summit produced no breakthroughs, both sides hailed it at the time as a positive step toward ending the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The next planned Trump-Putin summit in Budapest in the fall has been postponed indefinitely.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reaffirmed this week that Moscow was ready to resume contacts and rejected media reports claiming otherwise as false.

Comment: Moscow sees 'window of opportunity' in Russia-US ties:

The Trump administration's rejection of the "liberal globalist model" creates conditions for renewed dialogue.

Russia and the US have a chance to normalize relations and avoid a new phase of dangerous confrontation thanks to President Donald Trump's opposition to the liberal globalist agenda, Moscow's embassy in Washington has said.

In a statement on Sunday, the embassy celebrated the 92nd anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Soviet Union and the US. It said the decision by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to recognize the USSR in 1933 was shaped by his recognition of the new geopolitical reality.

The embassy also noted that despite decades marked by ups and downs in relations, Moscow and Washington have "always found resolutions" to their differences as the two nuclear powers "recognize their responsibility for the fate of the whole planet."

"In today's environment a window of opportunity has opened for Russia and the United States... to normalize relations based on principles of equality, respect for national interests, and non-confrontational coexistence. This comes against the backdrop of the Trump administration's rejection of the liberal globalist model of a 'rules-based world order.'"

The US leader has said he wants to end the hostilities, and US and Russian officials have held several rounds of talks this year, including the Alaska summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump.

Moscow has praised what it called Washington's willingness to mediate and consider the conflict's underlying causes. Russian officials have also said the renewed dialogue creates opportunities for trade and economic cooperation, despite Washington's decision to sanction Russian oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil.