Both US President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have said they are ready to engage in talks after Trump wins the election.

At the Valdai Discussion Forum on Thursday, the Russian leader said, “I take this opportunity to congratulate [Trump],” adding that he was “ready” to talk to the next U.S. president. Trump has also said he is willing to engage with the Kremlin. “I think we will talk,” he told NBC News.

Experts believe that US-Russian diplomacy is crucial to global stability. During Trump’s first term, he withdrew from two major arms control agreements with Moscow. President Joe Biden then launched a proxy war against Russia by flooding Ukraine with billions of dollars in weapons.

The US policy of expanding NATO — while abandoning arms agreements and helping Ukraine carry out missile strikes inside Russia — is putting Washington on the brink of a potential nuclear conflict with Moscow.

Trump ran for office saying he would end the war in Ukraine on day one without laying out a detailed plan for how he planned to accomplish it.

One issue that could prevent a deal is Kiev’s possible future membership in the Washington-led NATO alliance. As a condition for ending the war, the Russian leader has reiterated his demand that Ukraine agree not to join NATO.

“If there is no neutrality, it is difficult to imagine any good-neighbourly relations between Russia and Ukraine,” Putin said at the forum. “We are determined to create conditions for a long-term settlement so that Ukraine becomes an independent sovereign state, and not a tool in the hands of third countries, and is not used in their interests.”

The comments came on the heels of a report in the Wall Street Journal that sources within Trump's orbit say he will propose delaying Ukraine's suspended NATO membership for two decades.

During that period, the United States will continue to “pump Ukraine with weapons.”

The Kremlin would certainly consider both conditions unworkable.