If you want to view a Friday meeting in Alaska with one side, a Monday meeting with the other, and plans for both sides to get together as “no progress” then you are free to do so. In light of actual “no progress” ever since the last administration gave the ok to a minor incursion, many people see these first steps as signs of progress. They are free to do so.
I doubt that answer is simple enough for a deep-thinker such as yourself, but there you have it.