As U.S. and Russian Officials Meet, Talks Are Set to Go Beyond Ukraine

"The two sides are meeting in Saudi Arabia for their most extensive discussions in years. In addition to Ukraine, business ties are on the table.

Senior American and Russian officials were set to meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for the most extensive negotiations between the two countries in at least three years, as President Trump pushes to end the war in Ukraine and the Kremlin seeks warmer ties with Washington.

After arriving in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, Russian officials said they would seek “normalization” with the United States, even holding out the possibility that major American oil companies could return to Russia. Ukraine and Europe were watching from a distance with deep apprehension, amid fears that Mr. Trump could try to force a peace deal on Ukraine that would be favorable to Russia.

The meeting comes less than a week after Mr. Trump’s lengthy phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Trump said afterward that the two leaders spoke of “the great benefit” that the United States and Russia “will someday have in working together,” and that the two leaders had agreed to “start negotiations immediately” to end the conflict in Ukraine.

The U.S. delegation in Riyadh is led by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state; Michael Waltz, the national security adviser; and Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy and a longtime friend of the president.

They were expected to meet Tuesday with Russian officials including Sergey V. Lavrov, the foreign minister; Yuri Ushakov, Mr. Putin’s foreign policy adviser; and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund.

Mr. Ushakov told reporters after landing in Riyadh that the goal of the talks would be “to start a real normalization of the relationship between us and Washington.”

Mr. Dmitriev, who worked with Mr. Witkoff to broker the release last week of an American schoolteacher jailed in Russia, said he would seek to restart economic cooperation with the United States in order to “rebuild communication, rebuild trust, rebuild success.”

“U.S. oil majors have had very successful business in Russia,” Mr. Dmitriev said in a brief interview on Tuesday before the talks began, offering an example of how the countries could rebuild business ties. “We believe at some point they will be coming back, because why would they forego these opportunities that Russia gave them to have access to Russian natural resources?”

Leading Western oil companies, including Exxon Mobil, left Russia after events in Ukraine almost three years ago. Energy and economic ties were among the topics of the call between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump last week, according to Mr. Trump and the Kremlin.

Tuesday’s discussions will be the first time since early 2022 that broad delegations of senior American and Russian officials are known to have met in person. The meeting is another step in Mr. Trump’s bid to end the diplomatic isolation of Russia that former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. sought to enforce since the start of the events — a step that the Trump administration says is necessary in order to stop the conflict.

“If there is going to be the possibility of progress here towards peace, we are going to need to talk to the Russians,” Mr. Rubio said on the CBS show “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

But in Europe and Ukraine, the news of Tuesday’s planned talks has been met with confusion and concern. While Mr. Rubio characterized the talks as preliminary, there was widespread criticism in Europe that Mr. Trump’s approach to Russia hadn’t been coordinated with allies of the United States. And Ukrainian officials insisted they would reject any agreement about their country that was negotiated without their involvement.

“We cannot recognize any agreements made about us without us,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said Monday.

Mr. Zelensky is also in the Gulf region this week, where several countries have sought to use their relationships with Moscow, Kyiv and the West to play roles as mediators in the Ukraine conflict. On Monday, Mr. Zelensky was in the United Arab Emirates to discuss prisoner exchanges and the return of Ukrainian children from Russia.

Ukrainian officials have also said that Mr. Zelensky will be in Saudi Arabia this week, but that Ukraine was not invited to the U.S.-Russia talks. Mr. Ushakov, the Kremlin foreign policy adviser, said there were no plans for a three-way meeting with the Ukrainians.

“We came here to hold negotiations with American colleagues,” he said." [1]

Lower pressure between the Russians and the Americans would be both positive and concern for China. Less interference with Russians selling energy wuold reduce inflation in all the world. Hello, Biden, are you OK? You lost because of inflation, didn"t you? Poor sausage...

1. As U.S. and Russian Officials Meet, Talks Are Set to Go Beyond Ukraine. Troianovski, Anton.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Feb 18, 2025.