Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate for 2024, Donald Trump, stated that he will “very likely” meet with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky next week while Zelensky is attending the United Nations summit in New York.
According to Reuters, on Wednesday (September 18), when asked if he would meet with Zelensky, Trump said, “Very likely, yes.” However, Trump did not provide further details.
Zelensky is set to visit the United States next week to address the Russia-Ukraine conflict at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
In recent months, other world leaders attending summits in the U.S. have followed a similar pattern, meeting with President Biden before eventually meeting with Trump. This year being an election year in the United States, Trump is set to compete with the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on November 5th, and the competition is fierce as their polling support rates are very close.
In August, Zelensky expressed his desire to present a peace plan to Biden, Harris, and Trump. Despite a phone call between Trump and Zelensky in July, they have not had a face-to-face conversation since Trump’s term from 2017 to 2021 ended.
Trump has already scheduled a meeting with the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, this weekend, where they will attend an event in the battleground state of Pennsylvania together.
On Tuesday, during a municipal event in Flint, Michigan, Trump also mentioned that he will meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week, who is attending the United Nations summit in the U.S.