WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he is prepared to impose economic sanctions against Russia if its president, Vladimir Putin, fails to agree to a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.
“It’s very, very serious what I have in mind, if I have to do it, but I want to see it end,” Trump told a reporter who asked if Putin would face consequences. “We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic because we’re not going to get into a world war.”
The president has withheld long-threatened sanctions against Putin in his latest push to end the more than three-year-long war that has so far defied his efforts at mediation.
Trump is seeking one-on-one talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin. Though Zelensky has agreed in principle to such talks, Putin has not. The Kremlin has suggested no such meeting is currently on the cards.
“It will not be a world war, but it will be an economic war,” Trump said at a White House Cabinet meeting. “An economic war is going to be bad, and it’s going to be bad for Russia, and I don’t want that.”
He added: “Zelensky is not exactly innocent, either.”
Despite slow diplomatic progress, US and European officials have been discussing potential security guarantees that Washington might provide Kyiv after a hypothetical deal is reached, potentially including support by air or intelligence sharing.
Trump has long suggested using economic tools as leverage against warring nations. He is preparing to slap 25 percent more in tariffs on India’s US-bound exports on Wednesday over New Delhi’s Russian oil buying.
India is one of the biggest consumers of Russian oil.
Trump suggested on Tuesday that he was open to “using a very strong tariff system that’s very costly to Russia or Ukraine” to make peace.
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Trump still weighing ‘very serious’ economic sanctions on Russia
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Trump still weighing ‘very serious’ economic sanctions on Russia
- Trump suggested on Tuesday that he was open to “using a very strong tariff system that’s very costly to Russia or Ukraine” to make peace
Australian warship transits Taiwan Strait, tracked by China’s navy
- The Toowoomba ‘conducted a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait’
- ‘All interactions with foreign ships and aircraft were safe and professional’
SYDNEY: An Australian warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait, a government source said on Sunday in the latest transit of the sensitive waterway by a US ally, which Chinese state-backed media said was tracked and monitored by the nation’s military.
In addition to claiming sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, Beijing views the narrow, highly strategic strait as Chinese territorial waters and has responded aggressively on occasion to foreign navies sailing there.
The Toowoomba, an Anzac-class frigate of the Royal Australian Navy, “conducted a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait” on Friday and Saturday as part of a “Regional Presence Deployment in the Indo-Pacific region,” the source said.
“All interactions with foreign ships and aircraft were safe and professional,” the source said.
China’s state-backed Global Times newspaper, citing an unnamed Chinese military source, reported late on Saturday that “the Chinese People’s Liberation Army carried out full-process tracking, monitoring, and alert operations throughout the transit.”
US warships traverse the strait every few months, enraging Beijing, and some US allies, such as France, Australia, Britain and Canada, have also made occasional transits.
China has ramped up its military presence around Taiwan and staged its latest war games around the island in late December.
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
In addition to claiming sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, Beijing views the narrow, highly strategic strait as Chinese territorial waters and has responded aggressively on occasion to foreign navies sailing there.
The Toowoomba, an Anzac-class frigate of the Royal Australian Navy, “conducted a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait” on Friday and Saturday as part of a “Regional Presence Deployment in the Indo-Pacific region,” the source said.
“All interactions with foreign ships and aircraft were safe and professional,” the source said.
China’s state-backed Global Times newspaper, citing an unnamed Chinese military source, reported late on Saturday that “the Chinese People’s Liberation Army carried out full-process tracking, monitoring, and alert operations throughout the transit.”
US warships traverse the strait every few months, enraging Beijing, and some US allies, such as France, Australia, Britain and Canada, have also made occasional transits.
China has ramped up its military presence around Taiwan and staged its latest war games around the island in late December.
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
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