Negotiations between Russia and the United States led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have concluded in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The two delegations’ bilateral talks lasted about 4.5 hours, and according to Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s top aide Yuri Ushakov, the negotiations “went well.”
“There was a very serious conversation on all the issues we wanted to raise,” Ushakov told journalists after the meeting, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
On the agenda was the future of Ukraine, where Russia has been waging a full-scale war for three years — though Kyiv was left out of the discussions.
According to Ushakov, the two sides agreed to take into account each other’s interests and advance bilateral relations, and Moscow and Washington will work toward setting up a meeting of their leaders.
However, a meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump is unlikely to take place next week, as “intensive work” is needed first, according to the aide.
The State Department called the meeting an “important step forward” as Lavrov and Rubio agreed to form high-level negotiating teams to discuss a settlement to the war in Ukraine “as soon as possible in a way that is enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all sides.”
“The United States wants to stop the killing and is using its strength in the world to bring countries together,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told journalists after the talks.
However, ahead of the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said any talks over peace in Ukraine without Kyiv would “bring no result.”
In addition to the settlement teams, Washington and Moscow agreed to establish a consultation mechanism to address “irritants” in bilateral relations with “with the goal of taking the necessary steps to normalize the operation of the respective diplomatic missions” and “lay the groundwork for future cooperation on issues of mutual geopolitical interest and historic economic and investment opportunities.”
After the bilateral talks, Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, told Reuters that U.S. and Russian officials had separate discussions on future economic cooperation, including global energy prices.
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