Senior U.S. officials and Russian officials will hold the broadest negotiations in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday between at least three years as President Trump pushes to end the war in Ukraine and the Kremlin seeks warm relations with Washington.
After the Saudi capital arrived in Riyadh, Russian officials said they would seek “normalization” with the United States and even believed that major U.S. oil companies had the possibility of returning to Russia. Ukraine and Europe are watching deep worries from a distance over fears that Trump might try to make a peace deal against Ukraine, which is good for Russia.
The meeting came after Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin (V. Trump) said that the two leaders spoke about the “huge interests” that the United States and Russia will work together one day, A leader has agreed to “start negotiations immediately” to end the Ukrainian war.
The U.S. delegation in Riyadh was led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. National Security Advisor Michael Waltz; Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy, and a long-time friend of the president. They are expected to meet on Tuesday with Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov; Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov; Russian Sovereign Wealth Fund Kirill Dmitriev, the person in charge.
Mr Ushakov told reporters after landing in Riyadh that the purpose of the negotiations was to “start to really normalize our relationship with Washington”.
Mr. Demirev worked with Mr. Vidok for the release of an American school teacher who was sentenced to jail in Russia last week, saying he would seek to restart economic cooperation with the United States to “rebuild communication, rebuild trust, Rebuild successfully”.
“The U.S. oil professional business has achieved a very successful business in Russia,” Mr. Dmitryev said in a brief interview before the negotiations began. “We believe that at some point they will come back because why do they give up on Russia.” Give them these opportunities to obtain Russian natural resources?”
Occupy Petroleum, including Exxon Mobil, left Russia after Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine about three years ago. Mr. Trump and the Kremlin said last week’s call between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump, energy and economic ties were the themes of the call.
Tuesday’s discussions will be the first of a wide-ranging delegation of senior U.S. and Russian officials since early 2022. This meeting is another war for Mr. Trump to end Russia’s diplomatic quarantine.
“If it is possible to make peace here, we will need to talk to the Russians,” Rubio said on Sunday’s CBS show “Facing the Country.”
But in Europe and Ukraine, news of the planned talks on Tuesday is confusing and concerned. Although Mr Rubio described the talks as preliminary, widespread criticism from Europe for not coordinating with the United States’ allies. Ukrainian officials insist that they will refuse any agreements that are not involved in negotiations on their own countries.
“Without us, we will not be able to recognize any agreement about us,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday.
Mr. Zelensky is also in the Gulf this week, where several countries are trying to capitalize on their relations with Moscow, Kiev and the West to serve as mediators in the Ukrainian war. On Monday, Mr. Zelensky was in the United Arab Emirates, discussing prisoner exchanges and the return of Ukrainian children from Russia.
Ukrainian officials also said Mr. Zelensky will be in Saudi Arabia this week, but Ukraine has not been invited to talks with the United States and Russia. Mr Ushakov, the Kremlin foreign policy adviser, said there was no plan to hold a three-way meeting with the Ukrainians.
“We came here to negotiate with our American colleagues,” he said.
Andrew E.
