Top U.S. and Russian government officials will hold a meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss the restoration of bilateral ties and ending the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin confirmed on Monday, a move that comes just days after President Donald Trump announced he has spoken with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the matter.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet his U.S. counterpart Marco Rubio in Riyadh on ... [+]
The Kremlin’s top spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed the date of the meeting in his daily press briefing and said the Russian contingent will be led by the country’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s top foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov.
Peskov said the meeting with Trump officials in the Saudi capital will be “devoted primarily to restoring the entire complex of Russian-American relations.”
The Russian officials are also preparing for “possible talks” on settling the Ukraine war and setting up a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin, Peskov added.
The Kremlin’s announcement comes just ahead of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s arrival in Saudi Arabia on Monday, along with White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
On Sunday, Trump told reporters that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “will be involved” in peace negotiations, however, the Kremlin’s announcement did not mention the presence of Ukrainian officials in the meeting.
Ahead of the Russian and U.S. officials’ arrival in the Saudi capital, Zelenskyy traveled to the neighboring United Arab Emirates for a state visit on Sunday.
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In an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, Rubio said Putin expressed his interest in peace during his call with Trump last week. “Now, obviously it has to be followed up by action, so the next few weeks and days will determine whether it's serious or not. Ultimately, one phone call does not make peace. One phone call does not solve a war as complex as this one.” The secretary of state then added that if real negotiations on the war were to happen, “Ukraine will have to be involved, because they're the ones that were invaded, and the Europeans will have to be involved because… they have sanctions on Putin and Russia as well, and they've contributed to this effort.”