Washington said Russia and the US would name teams to negotiate a path to ending the war in Ukraine as soon as possible, as the superpowers yesterday met in Saudi Arabia without Kyiv or the EU.
However, no specifics on a possible meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, emerged from the gathering in Riyadh, the first high-level official Washington-Moscow talks since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Some European leaders, alarmed by Trump’s overhaul of US policy on Russia, fear Washington would make serious concessions to Moscow and rewrite the continent’s security arrangement in a Cold War-style deal between superpowers.
Photo: EPA-EFE
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov agreed to “appoint respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible,” the state department said.
Washington said the two sides also agreed to “establish a consultation mechanism” to address “irritants” to Russia and the US’ relationship, adding that it would lay the groundwork for future cooperation.
“Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey but an important one,” Rubio said after the talks.
The US delegation said negotiations would include discussions about territory and security guarantees for Ukraine. Russia controls about one-fifth of Ukraine.
Rubio said Trump wants to move quickly to try to bring an end to the war, and that the goal is a fair, enduring and sustainable agreement.
The goal is an agreement that is “acceptable to everyone involved in it, and that obviously includes Ukraine, but also our partners in Europe, and, of course, the Russian side as well,” he added.
Russia offered less detail on the outcome of the talks, saying: “We discussed and outlined our principled positions, and agreed that separate teams of negotiators will be in touch on this topic in due course.”
“It is still difficult to talk about a specific date for a meeting between the two leaders,” said Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide.
Russia sketched out some of its perspectives on future talks to ending the fighting in Ukraine, saying that settling the war required a reorganization of Europe’s defense agreements.
Moscow has long called for the withdrawal of NATO forces from eastern Europe, viewing the alliance as an existential threat on its flank.
“A lasting and long-term viable resolution is impossible without a comprehensive consideration of security issues on the continent,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to a question.
Before invading Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow had demanded NATO pull out of central and eastern Europe.
European leaders held an emergency meeting in Paris a day earlier, but struggled to put on a united front.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Turkey yesterday, said on the eve of the talks that he was not invited and would not “recognize any things or any agreements about us without us.”
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