President Donald Trump said Thursday he was not disappointed by news that Vladimir Putin will not attend Ukraine war talks in Turkiye, saying he didn’t expect Putin to attend the talks.

Axar.az reports, citing CNN, on Thursday, Trump told reporters in Qatar he “didn’t anticipate” Putin’s participation when asked if he was disappointed by the Russian president’s absence at the talks.

“No, I didn’t anticipate (Putin would go). I actually said, ‘Why would he go if I’m not going?’ Because I wasn’t going to go. I wasn’t planning to. I would go, but I wasn’t planning to go. And I said, ‘I don’t think he’s going to go if I don’t go.’ And that turned out to be right,” Trump said.

He continued, “I didn’t think it was possible for Putin to go if I’m not there.”

Trump repeatedly floated the possibility of traveling to Turkiye to join the talks, which would have upended his Middle East trip.

“I was thinking about going,” Trump said Thursday, “If something happened, I’d go on Friday if it was appropriate.”