US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that “all options are on the table” for further sanctions on Russia as the Ukraine war continues depsite the historic summit with President Trump in Alaska.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News, Bessent said: “President Putin, since the historic meeting in Anchorage, since the phone call, when the European leaders and President Zelensky were at the White House the following Monday, has done the opposite of following through on what he indicated he wanted to do. As a matter of fact, he has, in a despicable, despicable manner, increased the bombing campaign.”
“So I think with President Trump, all options are on the table, and I think we’ll be examining those very closely this week,” he added.
The Trump administration has been reluctant to impose further sanctions on Russia amid the ongoing efforts to strike a peace deal that would end the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Following the meeting with President Trump in Alaska to advance a peace deal, Putin has yet to scale back his military campaign in Ukraine.
On Thursday, Russia unleashed a wave of missiles and drones on Kyiv, killing at least 17 and wounding 48, including four children, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s city administration.
Experts told Fox News Digital that Putin’s continued aggression might be a tactical move. By engaging in diplomacy, Putin could be seeking extra time to push his agenda and avoid further US secondary sanctions that Trump has threatened to impose.
‘2 Great Nations Will Get This Solved’: Bessent On US-India Tariff Tensions
During the interview, Bessent was questioned about the current state of the US-India relationship amid the ongoing tariff tensions which began after the Trump administration recently imposed tariffs on India. US cited India’s purchases of Russian oil as aiding Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, while imposing tariffs.
On the SCO Summit in China, which witnessed the participation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Putin, and Xi Jinping, Bessent said: “This is a longstanding meeting, it’s called the Shanhai Cooperation Organisation and I think it’s largely performative.”
“I think at the end of the day, India is the most populous democracy in the world. Their values are much closer to ours and to China’s than to Russia’s,” he said.
Bessent noted the slow progress in the US-India trade negotiations as a key reason behind the tariffs and said: “I think at the end of the day, two great countries will get this solved. But the Indians have not been great actors in terms of buying Russian oil and then reselling it, financing the Russian war effort in Ukraine.”
Following the Alaska summit with Putin, Trump last month sad that he would know within “two weeks” whether Russia wanted to enter negotiations and invoked a deadline again, reiterating that he would punish Russia with sanctions if it refuses to make peace.
