Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Senior officials from Russia and the United States in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia met on Tuesday to start talks on improving relations and negotiations War in Ukraine. As reported by CBS News Holly Williams, some feel that the Trump administration gave Vladimir Putin a degree of victory only by agreeing to hold a high -level meeting with his regime as the war that ignited it with his comprehensive invasion of Ukran in February. 24, 2022 grinding on.
Ukraine leaders may feel the feelings of this feelings more severely, who have not been invited to participate in the initial discussion about the fate of their nation.
Delegations led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met on Tuesday, behind closed doors at the Deria Palace in Riyadh. The meeting represents another important step in President Trump’s move to reflect three years of American policy that focused on isolating Russia on its war on Ukraine, and it is supposed to pave the way for a possible meeting between Mr. Trump and Putin.
President Trump earlier this month gathered the United States’ policy towards Ukraine and Russia by saying that he had agreed to a phone call to start negotiations on ending the war, leaving many Ukrainians feel betrayal because they seem to have no opinion on this.
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Ukrainian President Folodimir Zellinski said Monday that his country will not accept the results of any negotiations without the involvement of Kiev.
Rubio, US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Steve Witkev, while Lavrov sat next to the Kremlin Foreign Affairs advisor, Yuri Oshkov. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan and National Security Adviser Musa Al Alban joined Rubio, Lavrov and others to start the meeting, but they were expected to leave early in the talks.
Oshkov said on Monday that the talks would be “purely duality” and will not include Ukrainian officials.
The talks indicate a significant expansion in US -Russian communications in a war that has witnessed relations that have declined to the lowest decades.
“The economic aspect of discussions”
In a possible indication of how Russia frams its discussions with the Trump administration, Russian chief businessman Kirill Dimitrev, a Western banking banker who now heads an investment fund created by the government, was also participating in the talks on Tuesday, according to Russian media.
“I will be responsible for the economic side of the discussions,” and quoted Dimitrif as saying by the news agency between Evax before the talks in Riyadh. He said, “The number we express for the first time now is that American business lost more than 300 billion dollars by leaving the Russian market,” referring to the impact of the sanctions imposed on Russia during the era of former President Biden.
“Finding common economic paths and positive solutions to issues is very important, especially for the United States and for many other countries that have begun to understand that the Russian market is very attractive and that it is necessary to be present in it,” he said. Adding that he hopes for a “positive dialogue”.
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“We see that President Trump is actively solving a large number of problems in the world and we hope that the position of the Russian Federation will be heard very clearly and the dialogue will continue,” said Dimitriev.
Dmitriev, who studied in Stanford and Harvard before working early in his career in Goldman Sachs, was a hub between Moscow and Washington during the first term of Mr. Trump in his position.
Ukrainians and Europeans who were marginalized from the talks
The recent American diplomatic raid in the war KYIV and Key Allies are sent to ensure a seat on the table Amid fears that Washington and Moscow can press a deal that will not be favorable to them.
France invited an emergency meeting of the European Union and UK countries on Monday to determine how to respond. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that he had spoken on the phone to Mr. Trump and Volodimir Zelinski after the meeting.
“We are looking for a strong and permanent peace in Ukraine,” Macron wrote on X. “Work on this along with all Europeans, Americans and Ukrainians.”
Before that meeting, British Prime Minister Kiir Starmer He said for the first time Monday The United Kingdom can deploy forces to Ukraine to help secure peace in the end. Sweden also indicated on Monday to deploy the forces to Ukraine to maintain a final peace.
While other European powers refused to make clear obligations, and called on discussions about the deployment of peacekeepers to Ukraine prematurely, the Prime Minister in Poland Donald Tusk excluded the sending of Polish forces to the neighboring nation.
Before meeting in France, Tusk emphasized that European powers should spend more immediately on defense.
“If we fail, the Europeans, in a great spending on defense now, we will have to spend 10 times more if we do not prevent a wider war,” Task said on social media.
A boost to “the situation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”?
Before the Riyadh talks, Kirill Dmitryv, head of the Russian direct investment fund, which the Kremlin said may join the meeting and emphasizes its importance in the comments on the Associated Press.
“The United States’s good relations in Russia are very important for the whole world. Russia and the United States can only deal with many global problems, solve global conflicts and provide solutions,” said Dmitriev, who said that he and his team will focus on economic issues in the talks, I told AP .
The Saudi -owned satellite channel, which indicates the Russian delegation, has described Moscow’s priority as “a real normalization with Washington.”
Dirieyah Palace sits across the street from RIYADH Diplomatic neighborhood. It is also next to the Ritz -Carlton Hotel, who became famous in 2017 after the de facto leader of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman detained the other princes and the elite of the country there as part of what the Royal Court described as corruption that accuses any possible challenge to control the Kingdom.
Hosting the talks is a major step towards Prince Muhammad’s goal throughout the war – which puts the kingdom in the midst of diplomatic negotiations. The Saudis helped the prisoners’ negotiations and hosted Zelinski for the Arab League summit in the Kingdom in 2023. Zelinski will travel to Saudi Arabia later this week.
For Prince Muhammad, former President Joe Biden described him as “pariah” by “pariah” during 2018 The killing of the Washington Post, Jamal KhashogjiHosting such conversations burns the disposal image otherwise.
Before the summit, the Saudi daily newspaper Okaz described this moment as “appointed the world over Riyadh.”
Journalist Michary Al -Daadi in the London -based Asharq Awsat newspaper wrote a summit as a “major step on the international political scene, and revealed the situation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its positive impact on the benefit of all people.”
The Emir also maintained close relations with Russia throughout its war on Ukraine, through OPEC+ Cartel Oil and a diplomat.
Hosting the summit also a balance between the harsh criticism imposed by the Kingdom -controlled media tight Then there has been since there since then October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. The Palestinians want Gaza and the West Bank for a future country, which is supported by almost the wider Arab world and almost all the international community.