US, Russian officials begin meeting in Riyadh
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: US and Russian diplomats began meeting Tuesday in Riyadh, journalists said, with talks expected to focus on resetting their fractured relations and making a tentative start on trying to end the Ukraine war.
The delegations, led by their top diplomats, met at Diriyah Palace in the Saudi capital for the first discussions of this level and format since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Earlier, AFP reported top Russian and US officials will meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss improving ties, a “possible” truce in Ukraine and a summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
The talks come amid a burst of diplomacy on the Ukraine conflict, kick-started by the US leader’s phone calls to both Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky last week in which he pressed both presidents to end the fighting.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and a senior Putin aide Yury Ushakov will fly to Riyadh, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
The talks between the US and Russian counterparts will be “devoted primarily to restoring the whole complex of Russian-American relations,” Peskov said.
Moscow has said it wants to hold discuss a plethora of broad security issues other than a possible Ukraine ceasefire.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday ahead of the talks with Russian officials aimed at ending Moscow’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine.
Riyadh, which is also involved in talks with Washington over the future of the Gaza Strip, has played a role in early contacts between the Trump administration, which took office on January 20, and Moscow, helping to secure a prisoner swap last week.
US top diplomat Rubio, who spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday, will meet Russian officials in Saudi Arabia alongside Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz and White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, a U.S. lawmaker and a source told Reuters.