A summit as useful as Agent Orange is for your garden

The toxic relationship between Trump and Putin is not just weird - it's dangerous for the West. Sam Kiley explains why

- Sam Kiley

A long-overdue summit between the presidents of the United States and the Russian Federation to discuss peace in Ukraine, where nuclear war has been threatened, must be seen as a historic moment for optimism.

Except that from London to Langley, Berlin, Canberra and Tokyo, intelligence chiefs will be on tenterhooks wondering whether this is another occasion that will resemble a meeting between an agent and his handler.

There’s no evidence that Donald Trump works for Vladimir Putin. But there is ample evidence that the US president favours Putin’s agenda. And that he has done all he can to hobble Ukraine while it attempts to defend itself against a Russian invasion of Europe’s eastern flank.

The summit was announced, significantly, by the Kremlin first. It may be held in the United Arab Emirates, which has been pursuing a “friends with all, enemies of none” foreign policy. That would be apt; a summit held in a mostly benign authoritarian state between a malevolent leader of a brutal authoritarian state and his greatest admirer, who happens to lead the world’s most powerful democracy.

Trump has done some performative pouting and sounded peevish about Putin recently. He has been humiliated by the Russian president’s indifference to his pleas to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine. This has provoked the leader of the free world to accuse its most dangerous challenger of “bullshit” and to threaten largely toothless sanctions against the Kremlin.