VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org
(Above: source ABC News)
The meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, between Presidents Trump and Putin was a setback for the arrogant and boastful US leader.
It came just 9 days after a 10-day deadline for a ceasefire by the Russians, demanded by Trump, had expired without any cessation of hostilities.
In what little we do know of the discussion between the two leaders, it appears that Trump gained nothing, and Putin gave nothing up. Indeed, for many observers, it would seem that Trump’s greatest achievement was getting Zelensky to wear something approximating a suit at their meeting a few days ago, given the criticism of his dress sense the last time the two met.
Putin was able to tell reporters after the Anchorage meeting that the war would only end when the conditions that caused it had been removed. Those conditions, including NATO’s eastwards expansion, the existence of Nazis in Ukraine, and complaints about the treatment of Russian-speakers in the Donbass, were the justification for Putin’s “special military operation” against Ukraine. Putin has made it clear that they will only be removed with a Russian victory over Ukraine.
Much was made of the symbolism of Anchorage as the venue. The closeness of this US city to Russia, just across the narrow Bering Strait, was said to typify the closeness of the Putin-Trump personal relationship.
What was more symbolic was the fact that Alaska had once been Russian territory, bought from the Czar in 1867 for US$7.2 million, equivalent to $162 million in 2024. It is reflective of Trump’s imperialist mindset that international conflicts can be settled by “deals” over territory. Hence his support for a French Riviera-style development of an ethnically cleansed Gaza, and his “deal” for the end of the Ukrainian war which involves recognition of Russian control of the Crimea and Donbass regions of Ukraine.
At least in the case of Crimea, there is some historical basis for its reabsorption into Russia, although not by the aggression used by Putin. When the US imperialists forced a regime change via the Maidan coup in Ukraine in 2014, Putin drew on the justifications of “protection” for ethnic Russians to retake the Crimea. It had been part of Russia since 1783 when it was seized from the Ottoman Turks. Khrushchev had gifted it to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954 in a move seen as trying to win allies for his usurpation of power following Stalin’s death. It remained populated by a majority of Russian-speakers who are believed to have welcomed its seizure back by Putin in 2014.
Now, we are watching to see what plays out in the meetings between Zelensky and Trump, and between Trump and the Europeans. The contradictions between the US and Europe over both Ukraine and Palestine are growing and resulting in a significant diplomatic and political isolation of US imperialism and a weakening of its international influence.
The US now has a significant economic stake in Ukraine. On April 30, 2025, the United States and Ukraine signed a deal to establish a joint investment fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine. The focus of the deal is access by the US to Ukraine’s mineral deposits.
However, the indications are that Trump wants the US to disengage militarily from Europe and settle the conflict with Russia, if need be, at Ukraine’s territorial expense, so that it can continue its focus on war preparations with China.
Those preparations directly involve Australia as a US proxy in a war with China. The AUKUS arrangements ($30 million a day for 30 years for a handful of submarines to be deployed interoperably with the US Navy), the Force Posture Agreement which cedes Australian territory to US forces, Pine Gap, and US intelligence agents embedded within Australia’s – all point to US intentions towards our region.
In effect, Australia’s acquiescence embeds our country in US preparations for war with China.
For years we have been conned with the lie that ANZUS guarantees that the US will protect us if we are ever attacked. That is not what ANZUS actually says, nor should it be believed given US vacillation and lack of principle in relation to the ending of Russian aggression against Ukraine.
In World War Two, Britain abandoned Australia to Japanese aggression, while our troops were fighting in north Africa. History must not repeat itself.
If there are lessons in Ukraine for Australia, they are that we must have genuine independence from imperialism, meaning control over our economy, removal of all foreign bases from our territory, and political control vested in the people, not in the puppets of US vested interests.
We stand for an independent, socialist Australia with a peaceful foreign policy.
We must end the US stranglehold of Australia.