Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to strengthen his rapport with Donald Trump ahead of their summit, praising the U.S. leader’s efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine and dangling the promise of economic cooperation as well as a new arms control treaty.

The charm offensive from Putin, before he arrives on U.S. soil for a face-to-face sit-down on Friday with the American president, sought to minimize the war — Europe’s deadliest conflict in decades — as a mere detail on the way to revitalizing ties between Washington and Moscow.

Putin highlighted issues that are a focus for Trump, who envisions himself as the dealmaker-in-chief and wants to be known as a “peacemaker” even as the U.S. president downplayed expectations that the summit will deliver on his pledge of bringing a swift end to Russia’s war.

Putin praised the U.S. for making “quite energetic and sincere efforts” to stop the fighting in Ukraine at a Kremlin meeting Thursday with senior officials. And he added that he was willing to start work on a new arms control treaty, saying an agreement on the control of strategic offensive weapons can “create long-term conditions for peace between our countries and in Europe and in the world as a whole.”

Putin tried to press Trump during his first presidential term to agree to an arms deal but had little success. While Russia has been open to resuming nuclear talks with the U.S. since last year, officials said in June that worsening relations with the U.S. had led to fading chances for a new pact to replace the last such treaty with the U.S., which expires early next year.

Trump, though, has sought to dial back hopes for a breakthrough, stung in part by a meeting with Putin during his first term that was seen as an embarrassment for the U.S. president. Trump at that gathering, standing alongside Putin, indicated that he believed the Russian leader’s claims that Moscow did not seek to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election — remarks which drew bipartisan ire in Washington.

That spectacle has loomed over the upcoming summit. And the announcement of the talks — without the participation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — left Kyiv’s allies alarmed. Those countries have expressed concern that the U.S. president — who has said an eventual deal would include territorial exchanges — could unilaterally agree to peace terms proposed by Putin that would disadvantage Ukraine and undermine the continent’s security.

Trump has bristled at suggestions in recent days that Putin may have the upper hand in Friday’s talks.

“If I got Moscow and Leningrad free, as part of the deal with Russia, the Fake News would say that I made a bad deal!” Trump wrote on social media on Wednesday. The city of St. Petersburg was formerly known as Leningrad.

Second meeting

All week, Trump and senior officials have moved to temper expectations, with the president describing the summit as a “feel-out” meeting.

In an interview on the "Brian Kilmeade Show" on Thursday, Trump said he foresaw “a 25% chance” that his coming sit-down with Putin would “not be a successful meeting,” and again stressed that he saw it as a precursor to a second, more important gathering.

“The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that’s going to be a meeting where they make a deal. And I don’t want to use the word ‘divvy’ things up, but you know, to a certain extent,” he said.

Trump at a White House event later Thursday suggested that some allied nations could participate in the second meeting and that it may also take place in Alaska.

“We’re going to have a meeting with President Putin, President Zelenskyy, myself. And maybe we’ll bring some of the European leaders along, maybe not,” Trump said.

“All I want to do is set the table for the next meeting,” he added. “I’d like to see it happen very quickly, very shortly after this meeting, I’d like to see it actually happen, maybe in Alaska, where we just stay, because it’s so much easier.”

Trump also signaled optimism for the talks, even as he warned they were merely a first step.

“I think President Putin will make peace. I think President Zelenskyy will make peace. We’ll see if they can get along, and if they can, it’ll be great,” Trump said.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the goal of the summit was to “get a sense very quickly and early, whether a peace is possible or not.”

“We’re going to do everything we can to achieve one, but ultimately it’ll be up to Ukraine and Russia to agree to one,” he told reporters at the State Department on Thursday.

Still, Trump has toughened his tone with Putin, insisting he was ready to impose “very severe consequences” if he didn’t agree to a ceasefire. And he sought to reassure allies on a call Wednesday that he would not negotiate the swap of territories at the summit and would push the Russian leader to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart.

Kremlin flattery

The Kremlin’s bid to highlight other issues important to Trump, however, shows how foreign capitals have deployed flattery to court the U.S. president.

While the focus of Friday’s meeting will be the war, the two leaders will also discuss bilateral economic cooperation at the talks, Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin’s top foreign policy aide, said Thursday, according to Tass. Trump has regularly floated the idea of renewed economic ties between Russia and the U.S. as a potential byproduct of peace and has touted his use of trade — and the threat of tariffs — to convince other nations to end conflicts.

Alongside foreign and defense ministers, the Russian summit delegation will also include Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s representative for international investment and economic cooperation — a lineup which suggests the parties may also discuss potential business ventures following the top-level talks.

Putin, however, is also heading to the summit confident that his country is winning the war as his military advances in Ukraine. Moscow is demanding that Ukraine cede its entire eastern Donbas region as well as Crimea, which Putin’s forces illegally annexed in 2014, as a condition to unlock a ceasefire and enter negotiations over a lasting settlement, Bloomberg previously reported.

“Putin’s aim is to divorce the issue of the war from bilateral relations including strategic and economic ones,” said Alexander Kolyandr, a London-based senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis and former strategist at Credit Suisse Group AG. “The topic of business, energy and financial sanctions seems to be equally if not more important for Putin.”

Trump on Thursday sought to downplay the notion Putin had an advantage, claiming that the summit happening on U.S. soil should be read as a victory. He also dismissed the idea he was considering offering Putin access to rare earth minerals or a reduction in NATO forces across Europe as a concession, and denied that agreeing to the summit had already provided the Russian leader a win.

“If we can get the war solved we’ll be very happy. As far as rare earth, that’s very unimportant relatively, I’m trying to save lives,” Trump said.

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(With assistance from Eric Martin, Mark Sweetman, Hadriana Lowenkron and Justin Sink.)

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