Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – senior officials from Russia and the United States met on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia to start talks about improving links and negotiations from the end of War in Ukraine.
Delegations led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gathered at the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh. The meeting marks another central stage by the Trump administration to reverse American policy on the isolation of Russia and is supposed to open the way to a meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump earlier this month upset American policy towards Ukraine and Russia saying that he and Putin had agreed to start negotiations at the end of the war.
Ukrainian officials do not participate in the meeting, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that his country would not accept the result if Kyiv was not included in the negotiations.
Evelyn Hockstein / Pool / AFP / Getty
Rubio was accompanied by US National Security Councilor Mike Waltz and Steve Witkoff Special Envoy, while Lavrov was sitting next to the Kremlin Foreign Affairs Advisor Yuri Ushakov. The Saudi Foreign Minister, Faisal Bin Farhan, and the national security advisor Musaed Al Alban joined Rubio, Lavrov and others for the start of the meeting, but had to leave at the start of the talks.
Ushakov said on Monday that talks would be “purely bilateral” and would not include Ukrainian officials.
The talks mark a significant expansion of American-Russian contacts almost three years after a war that has seen relations falling into the lowest level for decades.
Lavrov and the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, spoke briefly on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting in India almost two years ago, and in the fall of 2022, American species and Russians gathered in Turkey in the midst of Washington’s concerns that Moscow could resort to use the use of using the use of using the use of recourse to recourse to recourse to The use of using the use of using recourse to resort to resorting to the use of staying to stay to stay to be reverted nuclear weapons in the midst of the setbacks of the battlefield.
Ukrainians, Europeans have gone out of talks
The recent American diplomatic blitz on war has Sent to Kyiv and key allies blurring to ensure a seat at the table In the midst of the concerns that Washington and Moscow could move forward with an agreement that will not be favorable to them.
France called on Monday an emergency meeting in European Union and the United Kingdom to decide how to react. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Trump and Volodyr Zelenskyy on Trump on Tuesday after the meeting.
“We are looking for a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine,” wrote Macron on X. “To get there, Russia must end its assault, and this must be accompanied by solid and credible security guarantees for Ukrainians” -Ali declared by judging towards “Work with all Europeans, the Americans and the Ukrainians.”
Before this meeting, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said for the first time on Monday that the United Kingdom could deploy troops in Ukraine to help ensure possible peace. Sweden also indicated on Monday a desire to deploy forces in Ukraine to maintain possible peace.
While other European powers have refused to make explicit commitments, calling discussions on the deployment of peaceful soldiers in premature Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk excluded the sending of Polish troops to the neighboring nation.
Before the meeting in France, Tusk stressed that the European powers should immediately spend more in defense.
“If we Europeans do not go much in defense now, we will be forced to spend 10 times more if we do not prevent a wider war,” said Tusk on social networks.
A boost for “the status of Saudi Arabia”?
Before the Riyadh talks, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian direct investment fund who, according to the Kremlin, could join the meeting, said their importance in the comments of the Associated Press.
“Good American-Russia relations are very important to the whole world. Only Russia and the United States jointly to solve many global problems, solve world conflicts and propose solutions”, Dmitriev, who said that he and his team would focus on economic problems at the talks have declared the AP.
The Saudi Saudi Saudi channel Al Arabiya, citing the Russian delegation, described Moscow’s priority as a “real normalization with Washington”.
The Palais de Dériyah is facing the diplomatic district of Riyadh. It is also right next to the Ritz Carlton hotel, which became famous in 2017 after the de facto leader, the crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman, arrested other princes and the country’s elite there in the Framework that the Royal Court called for a repression against corruption which also sidelined a potential challenge. to its control of the kingdom.
Organizing talks is a major step towards a goal that Prince Mohammed pursued throughout the war – putting the kingdom in the midst of diplomatic negotiations. The Saudis helped the prisoner negotiations and welcomed Zelenskyy for a summit of the Arab League in the kingdom in 2023. Zelenskyy will probably go to Saudi Arabia later this week.
For Prince Mohammed, once described as a “pariah” by former president Joe Biden during 2018 Kill the journalist of the Washington Post Jamal KhashoggiWelcoming such burn discussions the image differently Tarlée than the West has him.
Before the summit, the newspaper of the Saudi daily Okaz described the moment as “the eye of the world on Riyadh”.
Writing in the newspaper based in London but Saudi Asharq Al Awsat, journalist Mishari al-Dhaidi described the summit as “a major stage on the international political failure arena, revealing the status of Saudi Arabia and its positive influence in the Profit of all people.
The prince also maintained close relations with Russia throughout his war against Ukraine, both through the OPEC + oil cartel and diplomatically.
Accommodate the summit also balances severe criticism recently taken by the closely controlled media of the Kingdom to Mr. Trump for his repeated comments according to which he wants the United States “to” have “the Gaza Strip, which was devastated by the offensive Israeli military since there since since there since On October 7, 2023, attack on Hamas. The Palestinians want Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, something supported by the broader Arab world and almost the entire international community.
