US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Saudi Arabia this morning to participate in talks with Russia, Reuters reports.
As the agency notes, official Riyadh played an important role in the initial contacts between Donald Trump’s administration and the Kremlin, helping to organize a prisoner swap last week.
Rubio said the coming weeks and days will show how serious Vladimir Putin is about peace. Earlier Saturday, the State Department chief held phone talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Rubio is expected to meet with the Russian delegation along with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and U.S. Presidential Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Whitkoff.
According to Kommersant, the meeting in Riyadh will take place as early as tomorrow.
Earlier, the media reported that from the Russian side, the negotiations will be attended by Yuri Ushakov, the Russian presidential aide on foreign policy issues, Sergei Naryshkin, director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, and Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. In addition, the mass media reported about Sergey Lavrov’s upcoming visit to Riyadh.
It is worth noting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is currently in the United Arab Emirates and plans to visit Saudi Arabia as well. However, he said that he was not going to meet with Russian or US officials and, according to media reports, Ukraine was not invited to the talks in Riyadh.
Looks like Riyadh is turning into the ultimate international party host these days 🕺🌍. I’m just waiting for someone to bring snacks, because all these high-stakes meetings must be exhausting!
It will be interesting to see if these talks lead to any real progress, especially with key players like Saudi Arabia involved. The absence of Ukraine from the negotiations raises some important questions about how inclusive and effective the discussions might be.