Trump setting up meeting with Putin, in communication with Xi

President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday that his team is in the works of setting up meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

“He wants to meet. And we’re setting it up,” he told reporters during a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago club regarding Putin. “President Xi – we’ve had a lot of communication. We have a lot of meetings set up with a lot of people. 

“I’d rather wait until after the 20th,” he added in reference to his inauguration date later this month.

“President Putin wants to meet,” Trump added. “We have to get that war over.”

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Trump pointed to the “staggering” casualty rates endured by both Russia and Ukraine and suggested the number of civilian casualties was also likely to be considerably higher than what has been reported. 

The Kremlin confirmed Trump’s comments on Friday and said it was ready “to resolve problems through dialogue,” reported Russian news agency Tass.

The Trump-appointed special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Gen. Keith Kellogg, told Fox News Digital that he has set a goal to end the war in Ukraine within 100 days of taking up the top job. 

Kellogg described the war as “carnage” but said he was confident that Trump can end the war in the “near term.”

The retired three-star general told Fox News’ “America Reports” on Thursday that he and Trump are going to make sure the cease-fire agreement is “fair” and “equitable,” though he did not detail what this means as far as withdrawing Russian forces from Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders. 

Former President Donald Trump, right, meets with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Trump has not detailed how he intends to end the three-year-long war, though he suggested he could support Putin’s demand that Ukraine be barred from entering the NATO alliance, and told reporters Thursday he “could understand [Putin’s] feeling about” not wanting NATO “on their doorstep.”

Prior to its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow already had four nations on its borders that were members of the international security alliance, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Finland then joined NATO in 2023, applying for membership just 3 months after the Feb. 22, 2022 invasion. 

Moscow and Kyiv have made clear that stipulations surrounding Ukraine’s NATO membership are non-negotiable. 

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Then-President Trump, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Trump did not detail when he could meet with the Chinese president, and it remains unclear if Xi has plans to meet personally with him.

Trump reportedly invited Xi to his inauguration ceremony, though Beijing said it would instead send a top-level envoy, which is more inline with tradition. 

In his final meeting with President Biden in November, Xi had expressed a willingness to work with the former and soon-to-be president of the United States.

However, Trump, who once said he and Xi “love each other,” in late-November promised to hit China with 60% tariffs and then this week said he would consider using military action to seize the Panama Canal, which the U.S. returned to Panama in 1979 before then ending its partnership over control of the strategic thoroughfare in 1999.

“The Panama Canal is vital to our country and its being operated by China – China. We gave the Panama Canal to Panama – we didn’t give it to China,” he added. 

The Marshall Islands cargo ship Cape Hellas and the Portuguese cargo ship MSC Elma sail on Gatun Lake near the Agua Clara Locks of the Panama Canal in Colon City, Panama, on Dec. 28, 2024. (ARNULFO FRANCO/AFP via Getty Images)

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Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the Panama Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.

The Trump transition team did not respond to questions by Fox News Digital over concerns of sparking a military confrontation with China in Panama.