A meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh has concluded - a meeting that could lead to a summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign adviser Yuri Ushakov, who attended the talks in Riyadh alongside Sergei Lavrov, told Russian state television that no date had yet been set for a meeting between Putin and the US president. Ushakov only clarified that the meeting is unlikely to take place next week.
"The delegations of the two countries need to work closely together. We are ready for this, but it is still difficult to talk about a specific date for the meeting of the two leaders," Ushakov explained.
US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce gave a summary of the talks. According to him, citing Reuters, Russia and the United States agreed to "establish a consultation mechanism to address the problems" of the bilateral relationship "with the aim of taking the necessary measures to normalize the functioning" of the respective diplomatic missions".
"Appoint the respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to end the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible, in a way that is lasting, sustainable and acceptable to all parties," he continued.
It was also agreed to "lay the foundation for future cooperation on issues of mutual geopolitical interest and historic economic and investment opportunities that will arise from a successful end to the conflict in Ukraine" and will "remain committed to ensuring that the process moves forward in a timely and productive manner."
Referring to Trump's phone call with Vladimir Putin last week, the spokeswoman stressed: "A phone call followed by a meeting is not enough to establish lasting peace. We must act, and today we took an important step forward."
Meanwhile, US negotiator Mike Waltz, the US president's national security adviser, said that Trump is determined to move forward very quickly in talks on a potential peace deal in Ukraine, and that there will be negotiations on territory and security guarantees. An endless war in Europe is not acceptable to Trump, added Waltz, who also attended the meeting.
In turn, Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, stated that all those involved in the conflict in Ukraine must agree on the solution to end it.
Rubio said the meeting with Russian officials in Riyadh was the first step in a long and difficult journey to end the war.
It is worth noting that, on the North American side, the special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, also participated.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the talks were "very useful" as the parties "did not just listen to each other, but listened to each other".
"I have every reason to believe that the American side understands our position," he said.
No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting, which comes as the besieged country is slowly but visibly losing ground to Russian troops, who are outnumbered in a grueling war that began nearly three years ago.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country will not accept any outcome of this week's talks if Kyiv does not participate.
European allies have also expressed concerns that they are being sidelined from the negotiations.
In addition to the Ukraine issue, the meeting is expected to focus on thawing relations between the two countries, whose ties have fallen to their lowest level in decades.
The aim of the meeting was also to pave the way for a meeting between Trump and Putin.
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