Russia and US confirm Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia Leave a comment
The United States and Russia have confirmed that their top delegates will meet to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
Senior officials will travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday, the US State Department and the Kremlin confirmed. They will meet in Riyadh on Tuesday intending to lay the groundwork for peace talks, the two sides said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to President Vladimir Putin, were due to travel, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
They will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, the State Department said.
Peskov said the meeting “will be dedicated to possible negotiations on a Ukrainian resolution and organising a meeting between the two presidents”.
Following reports that US President Donald Trump could meet Putin in Saudi Arabia, the Republican leader said at the weekend that such a meeting could happen “very soon”.
The Reuters news agency, quoting Peskov, reported that the meeting on Tuesday will focus on “restoring the whole complex of Russian-American relations”.
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund chief Kirill Dmitriev will also reportedly join the meeting.
Rubio said on Sunday that Tuesday’s meeting would seek to open a broader conversation that “would include Ukraine and would involve the end of the war”.
“A process towards peace is not a one-meeting thing,” he told the US television network CBS.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would not take part in the Saudi Arabia-based talks or recognise any potential agreement reached in Kyiv’s absence.
However, Zelenskyy said he would visit Saudi Arabia separately the day after on Wednesday, and that he planned to ask Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for updates on the talks.
Alarm
As the talks in Riyadh were confirmed, European leaders were due to meet in Paris to discuss their response to Washington’s shocking policy shift on Ukraine, which has seen Kyiv and its European allies sidelined.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said as Europe’s security was at a “turning point”. “Yes, it is about Ukraine – but it is also about us,” she said as she arrived at the emergency meeting. “We need an urgency mindset. We need a surge in defence. And we need both of them now.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he would urge European leaders in Paris to “immediately” boost Europe’s defences, warning they do not match Russia’s.
“We will not be able to effectively help Ukraine if we do not immediately take practical steps regarding our own defence capabilities,” Tusk told reporters before flying to Paris. “If Europe, and that’s the case today, is not able to counter Russia’s military potential, then we must catch up immediately.”
Trump has announced that he intends to talk “peace in Ukraine” directly with Putin, who unleashed a full-scale invasion of his neighbour three years ago. US officials confirmed over the weekend that they do not expect Europe to be involved.
That has prompted alarm that the US president could hand concessions to Russia and Europe’s security architecture and its defence partnership with the US could be weakened.
Peskov suggested that Moscow is happy with Trump’s approach, stating that discussions on European participation in talks on a settlement in Ukraine would be premature.
Lavrov later remarked that he saw no reason for Europeans to take part in ceasefire talks, accusing them of wanting to “continue war” in Ukraine.
“I don’t know what they would do at the negotiating table … if they are going to sit at the negotiating table with the aim of continuing war, then why invite them there?” he told a news conference in Moscow.
Before the informal summit in France, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said European leaders will discuss how to prevent a peace negotiation from ending up rewarding Russian aggression.
“A war of aggression cannot be rewarded. We cannot encourage others to launch wars of aggression,” he said in an interview with the Onda Cero radio station. “Today I’m convinced Putin will keep attacking and bombing Ukraine, so I do not see peace on the horizon at the moment.”
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas last week warned Trump against “any deal behind” the backs of Ukraine or Europe and accused him of “appeasement”.
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