Russia and the United States discussed possible cooperation on energy projects in the Arctic at a meeting in Saudi Arabia Tuesday, a top Russian negotiator told POLITICO.
Kirill Dmitriev, who heads the state-owned Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said the economic conversations had been about broad strokes, but that the two sides had discussed some “specific areas of cooperation.”
“It was more a general discussion — maybe joint projects in the Arctic. We specifically discussed the Arctic,” Dmitriev said by phone as he boarded a flight home after the talks in Riyadh.
The negotiations, which sidelined Ukraine and Europe, have sparked angst and urgency in key European capitals as U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin look set to decide on Ukraine’s future without substantial input from Kyiv or its Western allies.
For his part, Trump aims to expand American influence in the Arctic, having repeatedly mused about acquiring Greenland from Denmark — and has refused to rule out using military force or economic coercion to seize control of the massive island with its vast mineral wealth and key strategic location.
U.S. oil major ExxonMobil had partnered with Russian state oil major Rosneft to explore for hydrocarbons in the high Arctic, but pulled out in 2018 following the imposition of Western sanctions in response to Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
Dmitriev was part of a Russian delegation that included Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov and was in Saudi Arabia for initial discissions on Ukraine. Tuesday’s talks were the first contact between officials from the two sides following a call between Trump and Putin last week.
He commented on the economic track of the talks, which he described as good, but declined to go into detail on the political discussions. Secretary of State Marco Rubio led the U.S. delegation, accompanied by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
“Positive after the Biden administration destroyed all of the communication, destroyed all of the discussion,” he said.
In further remarks, Dmitriev said he had presented an estimate by the RDIF that U.S. businesses had lost around $300 billion as a result of leaving Russia following Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“There is an understanding that bad relations between Russia and the U.S. actually cost a lot to American business, and there are ways to have productive cooperation benefit both Russia and the U.S.” he said.
“I would not want to have unrealistic expectations for the process going forward, but I think joint investments between Russia and the U.S. are now more likely after this meeting than before,” he added.
On next steps, Dmitriev said the two sides had agreed to set up working groups and have regular high-level contacts. No further meetings have yet been scheduled.
The RDIF was set up in 2011 to partner with foreign investors on projects in Russia, and later backed a Covid-19 vaccine. The sovereign fund was sidelined following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as foreign investors pulled out or scaled back their exposure to Russia. Shortly before Putin ordered in Russian troops, the RDIF issued a statement calling for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
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