US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is meeting his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov today in Saudi Arabia. Lks are aimed at setting up negotiations for a peace plan for Ukraine without Kyiv’s European allies at the table. It’s the first high-level meeting between the two countries since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor three years ago. A day earlier, European leaders held an emergency summit in Paris over the prospect of being excluded from peace talks. Let’s take a look at what the meeting between the US.
and Russia is likely to accomplish in Riyadh. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, ahead of talks with his Russian counterpart for Ukraine. The stakes couldn’t be higher but Ukraine won’t be part of the talks. Events have moved fast in the past week. President Donald Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin after years in which the US froze Putin out for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The US made announcements ahead of negotiations that haven’t even been scheduled yet about what a Ukraine peace.
deal might look like us Defense Secretary Pete Heath has said that NATO membership for Ukraine is unrealistic and is a return to Ukraine’s old borders in line with key demands from Moscow. It’s also said that European and non-European forces should provide security guarantees but that there would be no US boots on the ground. The Trump administration has also indicated that sanctions relief for Russia is on the table. TO allies of the US have scrambled to catch up, asserting that they too should take part in any peace.
Russia and US agree at talks without Ukraine to press
talks UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Stammer has said British troops could be part of a peacekeeping force and Sweden says it would not rule out also sending troops to guarantee a ceasefire. Leaders have also discussed a peace plan provision that would see Ukraine gain NATO membership if Russia breaks a ceasefire. In all this, Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr, have largely been sidelined but Belinsky has said Ukraine would not abide by agreements made without its participation. Trump did send his treasury secretary to Ukraine to discuss.
us access to Ukraine’s Rare Earth minerals suggesting that could be a way to pay back the US for Military Support meanwhile the war raged is on the front line barely moving as Ukraine tries to hold on to its territory knowing that if Russia takes it Ukraine may not get it back and we can now speak to G Lan who’s a lecturer in US foreign policy at Queen Mary University in London welcome to to DW thank you so much for your time um so as we’ve been saying us and Russia they’re talking again after several.
Years of silence Can you tell us these talks are about more than simply resolving the conflict in Ukraine?? Is it more about the US and Russia essentially positioning themselves as,, you know,, these two global power brokers?? Yeah, I think that is exactly it. What we’re having here are preliminary talks between the United States and Russia establishing negotiating positions and this is not just about the Russia-Ukraine war. The truth that emerges here is that this is about the normalization of relations.
US-Russia talks sideline Ukraine and Europe
between the United States and Russia um there’s already talk about a return of American energy companies um to Russia um lifting of economic sanctions but of course all of that hinges on ending uh the war in Ukraine and what we have seen recently from statements by Pete hexes the speech by Vance the phone conversation um by Trump with Putin um the United States seems ready to make substantial concessions here toward Russia so what is at stake here for the US and and why the US seems so determined to push for.
negotiations when the conflict in Ukraine is still raging.. Does that relate to what you just said?? Essentially,, it’s about money and normalizing relations.. Yeah,, I think what we’ve also seen here with the Munich Security Conference is a transformation,, frankly,, of the European security landscape.. Um,, the United States wants to strategically reduce its footprint Europe.. They want to put responsibility for European security onto Europeans and of that,, of course,, has caught the Europeans tee offs guarder.
Wrong footing this, w are seeing quite a panic climatic action’s here and I think the larger picture here emerges that we are moving into a world of great power diplomacy with fewer and and and fewer shared values and alliances and partnerships. How US foreign policy has,, um,, normally been conducted,, if we could go back,, though,, to the talks about the conflict in Ukraine,, uh,, Ukraine’s president,, Zaleski,, has been very clear.. He said he will never accept any decisions between the US and Russia without Ukraine’s participation in talks.
U.S. and Russia agree to restore embassy staffing in high
So can the talks be taken seriously as peace talks without Ukraine at the table?? I don’t think they can be taken seriously as a really diplomatic situational solution for this conflict. There’ll also have to be bilateral discussions between Russia and Ukraine, of course but the problem is that Ukraine is so dependent militarily and financially on the United States that if the United States completely removed their support for Ukraine, it would be very difficult for Ukraine to sustain the war on their own or just.
With European support, this gives the US a lot of leverage. You talked earlier about this shift in transatlantic relations. Can you talk to us more about the implications for Europe and US-European relations, given that Europe has been sidelined here? Yeah, I think this is, you know, quite a worrying sign that Europeans are literally not at the table. Think this also shows what kind of recognition Europe has with the Trump Administration. JD Vance recently, with his speech, almost presented Europe.
as an ideological enemy for supposedly cracking down on freedom, racking down on the freedom of speech in Europe and we are seeing the United States positioning itself at least partially, even as you know, as a rival to Europe but then we also have voices like HOC, for example, which are more conciliatory. Yes, so we also have a very confusing picture of what the Trump administration actually really wants, how far they are willing to go to meet the Russians, or withdraw from Europe so a lot is simply not known but I think we are.
US and Russia discuss Ukraine war as Trump’s federal
potentially gearing up for a summit between Putin and Trump on both the issues of European security and NATO and the Russo-Ukrainian War. Yeah, Glam from Queen Mary University in London. Thank you so much for your time; we appreciate it… Thank you. US Secretary of State Marco Ruby is meeting his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov today in Saudi Arabia. Talks are aimed at setting up negotiations for a peace plan for Ukraine without Kyiv or Europe at the table. is the first high-level meeting between the US and Russia since the start of. Russia’s
full-scale invasion of Ukraine Three years ago,, the meeting in Riyadh marked an abrupt reversal of years of US efforts to isolate Russia internationally.. Joining me now for more on this is DW’s Ria bureau chief,, Yuri Retta. Yuri and his team report from Ria because DW was banned from reporting in Russia so Yuri,, these talks,, they mark a very sudden end to Russia’s international isolation.. How much of a diplomatic coup is this seen as in Moscow?? Well,, indeed ,Putin is dominating the headlines at the moment and yes,, uh,,
The most important headline is Russia. Kremlin Putin himself are out of isolation um the Russian media are celebrating today’s negotiations and are happy to use them as let’s say an opportunity to criticize the West at the same time uh also they paid close attention to every detail as it peace in Ukraine dependent on it uh for example the ties of the participants were compared and analyzed uh the state media agency R nova emphasized that Russian for Minister Love and us Secretary of State Rubio are wearing ties of the same color.
Of course these are absolute secondary issues but you can see that there eager to show as many points of common ground with Americans as possible and to say,, Hey,, look here,, we understand each other.. So who from Russia is there apart from foreign minister,, Sergey Lavrov, who’s taking part in these talks?? Yeah,, Russia is represented at the talk by Lavrov, you said it.. President Putin’s foreign policy 8 Yuri the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund,, Kiln Dimitry, leady.
met with the Why is it important for the United States to support Ukraine? American can delegation yesterday;; today both sides are to discuss not only preparations for the presidential talks but also the ways to improve us Russian relations,, uh,, the Russian delegation handed to the Americans its trade and economic proposals and,, uh,, provided data on the damage.. They said that according to the Russian side,, American companies have suffered as a result of the sanctions d on Russia.. Okay,, uh,, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman,, uh,, says that he is ready to negotiate with the Ukrainian president if and I quote,, if.
necessary What does that mean,, do you think?? Well,, I think,, uh,, he said this after his counterpart,, Zaleski, the, the Ukrainian president,, had said that he would only negotiate with one Russian person, rsonally.. Uh,, the two have criticized each other extremely harshly.. Um,, Zelenskyky compared Putin to Hitler. Putin spoke on drug-addicted state leadership in Ukraine and questioned Zelenenksy’s legitimacy. Putin also sailed negotiate with him accept Zelenksy’ssy’s signature under the agreement because he.
Supposedly no longer legitimate but both men want progress, nd both are politicians and politics means making compromises and Russia is now also saying that Ukraine has the right to join the European Union if it wants to. It seems like quite a significant concession by Russia, indeed, or it sounds like a significant concession because the Russians are now in a much better negotiation position than years ago, but in fact Russia has never wanted to undermine Ukraine’s EU membership. Of course, Moscow is not thrilled about this.
or this development Uh, and the Maidan revolution in 2014 had its origins in Ukraine’s desire to get closer to the EU and not to Russia, but, um a much more important point for the Russians is Ukraine’s, uh, NATO membership, um and in my opinion, Putin would never say yes to that. DW’s Yuri, many thanks. Yuri.
