 "US President Donald Trump with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska. File image/Reuters")
US President Donald Trump on Friday thanked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for recognising his efforts to address long-standing complex crises, despite being passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Taking to Truth Social, President Trump said, “Thank you to President Putin!” as the Russian president praised his efforts for peace.
This marks Trump’s first public comment since the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, even as he continued to insist that he deserved the prize for “ending seven unendable wars.”
However, Trump has not directly responded to being passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize, which was announced just a day after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal mediated by the United States.
While Trump was overlooked for the award, President Putin praised his peace efforts and expressed hope for extending a key nuclear arms pact with Washington for another year.
When asked if he thought Trump was unfairly excluded from the Nobel Peace Prize, Putin said he was not the one to decide but lauded Trump’s role in advancing ceasefires in Gaza and Ukraine.
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Although he did not comment on Machado’s win, Putin criticised certain past prize decisions, saying that there have been occasions when the award was given to individuals who did nothing for peace.
“There have been cases where the committee has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to people who have done nothing for peace. A person comes, good or bad, and (gets it) in a month, in two months, boom. For what? He didn’t do anything at all. In my view, these decisions have done enormous damage to the prestige of this prize,” he added.
Maria Corina Machado, recipient of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, has dedicated her award to the Venezuelan people and to President Trump for his “decisive support” of her country’s pro-democracy movement.
She said, “I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!”
“We are on the threshold of victory and today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve Freedom and democracy,” said Machado, who has been in hiding in Venezuela for the past year.
With inputs from agencies