Senior American and Russian officials and their Saudi Arabian hosts begin “early stage” talks on possible negotiations on a Ukraine peace agreement at Diriyah Palace, in Riyadh on Tuesday. Photo courtesy Russian Foreign Ministry/EPA-EFE
Feb. 18 (UPI) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his team and Kremlin negotiators agree in Saudi Arabia on four broad principles moving forward to help negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine and the ongoing dialogue between the Trump administration and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Through spokesperson Tammy Bruce, Rubio said after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the two said the countries needed to re-establish a bilateral relationship to address their concerns with each other.
The teams agreed to establish a consultation mechanism “to address irritants to our bilateral relationship” in an effort to “normalize the operation of our respective diplomatic missions.”
They also agreed to appoint high-level teams to work on ways to end the Ukrainian war “that is enduring, sustainable and acceptable to all sides, lay the groundwork for cooperation and interest that will emerge after the war.
“The parties to today’s meetings pledge to remain engaged to make sure the process moves forward in a timely and productive manner,” Bruce said in the statement.
An image posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s X account from the meetings in Riyadh showed Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff sitting across a huge mahogany table from Lavrov and Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov. In remarks after the meeting, Rubio and Waltz repeated that the meeting could not have happened with the presence of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Hosts Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud and National Security Adviser Musaed bin Mohammed al-Aiban sat at the head of table, but no officials from Ukraine were present.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not invited to the talks and was in Turkey on Tuesday meeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has said Ukraine could not accept any peace deal agreed without its involvement.
Speaking ahead of the talks, Rubio said the meeting was an initial foray to find out if Moscow was serious about wanting peace and sought to play down fears the United States was going over the heads of Ukraine and European allies, saying both would be included in any substantive negotiations.
Before heading to Saudi Arabia on Monday, Lavrov ruled out returning any of the territory Russia has captured from Ukraine.
Russia, was instead, officials said, seeking normalization of relations with the United States after years of being squeezed by ever-tougher economic and diplomatic sanctions as Western countries led by Washington pursued a policy of isolating Moscow.
Zelensky, who has consistently demanded Russia withdraw to its pre-2014 borders with Ukraine, said Monday that any decision that came out of the talks must be accompanied by “robust and reliable” security guarantees such as NATO membership or a similar alternative with U.S. backing “in one form or another” to deter future Russian aggression
“Any other decision without such guarantee — such as a fragile cease-fire — would only serve as another deception by Russia and a prelude to a new Russian war against Ukraine or other European nations,” Zelensky wrote in a post on X Monday night after European leaders held an emergency summit in Paris as the continent scrambled to respond to U.S.-Russia direct talks.
“If we don’t have NATO, then, figuratively speaking, NATO must be built in Ukraine. Figuratively speaking — but the actions must be real and substantive. This means a million-strong army, which requires funding and weapons,” Zelensky said in an earlier news release.
“We want security guarantees not on paper, but on the ground, at sea and in the sky. Air defense, aircraft and ships.”
The Russian delegation was also accompanied by the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, with whom U.S. officials were scheduled to meet separately for economic talks.
Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump set up the United States’ first sovereign wealth fund, a state-run investment fund designed to harness the economic benefits Norway, China and the United Arab Emirates and other countries reap from similar funds.
Dmitriev, on Tuesday, sought to temper expectations about the pace of forward movement or an early breakthrough from the meeting, saying it would take months rather than days or weeks, the state-run TASS news agency reported.
“We have a number of proposals our colleagues are thinking of. I believe progress may be achieved there not in the long run but during the next two to three months,” said Dmitriev who stressed that his involvement was strictly on investment and economic issues, not political matters.
The meeting came just six days after Trump first announced peace talks Wednesday, following a 90-minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.