The top US and Russian officials are scheduled to meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday with the aim of restoring ties and setting up negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said discussions in Riyadh could pave the way for a face-to-face meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
It comes last Wednesday after the pair made a groundbreaking long phone call.
Follow the story of peace and the update of the Ukrainian War
Riyadh, who is also involved in talks with Washington about the future of the Gaza Strip, has played a role in early contacts between the Trump administration.
But who will be involved in the discussion tomorrow?
Marco Rubio
Marco Rubio after arriving in Riad. Photo: Reuters
Trump’s Secretary of State, who arrived in Riyadh on Monday, serves as the president’s chief foreign advisor and the country’s diplomat.
Rubio, a former Florida senator, already spoke on the phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday to discuss war and other topics in Ukraine, according to how the two countries read the call.
The US President and Rubio were enemies when they became Republican presidential candidates in 2016 and began publicly insulting each other.
Over the past few years, however, Rubio has softened some of his stances to more closely align with Trump’s views, particularly on foreign policy. In the end, I lost to JD Vance.
Before he became Secretary of State, the 53-year-old said that Ukraine should seek a negotiated settlement with Russia, rather than focusing on reclaiming all the territory Russia has taken over the past decade. I stated.
“I’m not on Russia’s side, but unfortunately the reality is that the way the war in Ukraine ends is a negotiated settlement,” he said in September.
Michael Waltz
Michael Waltz at the Republican National Convention last year. Photo: Reuters
US national security adviser Michael Waltz will be with Rubio during US-Russia talks.
The 51-year-old is a Green Beret veteran who worked in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa.
Since 2019 he has represented the Congressional District in the House, where he is a member of the Armed Services, the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Intelligence Election Committee.
Before Trump’s appointment in the cabinet, he co-authored an article by an economist who revealed his views on how the US could move to persuade Russia to end the war. .
“The US can use economic leverage, such as lifting a suspension of liquefied natural gas exports and cracking down on illegal oil sales in Russia. Former Pentagon strategist.
“If he refuses to speak, Washington can provide Ukraine with more weapons, as Trump argued. In the face of this pressure, Putin said It will likely take an opportunity to curb conflict.”
He said he did not want Moscow to declare his actions in Ukraine as victory.
Instead, he wrote that he would require Putin to accept the deal that Ukraine is an independent state and closely linked to the West.
Steve Witkoff
Middle Eastern Envoy Steve Witkoff (left): Photo: Reuters
Witkoff, Trump’s special Middle East envoy, is a longtime friend of the president and a billionaire real estate developer.
The 67-year-old, who has known Trump for decades, is a Republican donor and served as one of the president’s great American economic recovery industry groups to combat the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Like Trump, he made property in real estate in both New York and Florida, bringing his family (his wife, Lauren and sons Alex and Zach) to the Witcoff group.
He has seen him regularly join Trump on golf courses and attended the Florida course last September during the president’s apparent assassination attempt.
Witkov was a Trump man in the room of the ceasefire negotiations in Hamas, a highly vulnerable Israeli role, busy with his new Middle Eastern role.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, he confirmed he was heading towards Riyadh, adding, “And hopefully we’ll make really good progress.”
Sergei Lavrov
Sergei Lavrov at a meeting in Moscow. Photo: Reuters
Sergei Lavrov was Russia’s longtime foreign minister and regained his role in 2004.
The highly decorated Kremlin official is described as “the Jedi Master of the Dark Arts of Russian Diplomacy” by Sky News’ international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn.
He says that Mr. Lavrov, like others in the Kremlin, is “a bully whom Kajol and bully who think is appropriate” to make strange claims about the reality of war. He said.
Initially, when rumors of a Russian invasion were sparked, he said it would never happen – after it began, he insisted that for a while it had not.
The 74-year-old unintentionally found the audience laughing and laughing at an international conference in India in March 2023 by attempting to portray his country as a victim of a war in Ukraine.
“The war we are trying to stop was, of course, started against us using the people of Ukrainians. Of course, it affected Russian policies, including energy policies,” he said. He said to the chorus of laughter and moaning.
Yuri Ushakov
Yuri Ushakov. Photo: AP
Putin’s foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov joins Lavrov or the Russian side of the table.
Americans will be familiar with Kremlin officials. He served as Russia’s ambassador from 1998 to 2008 before winning his current post in 2012.
What exactly is the meeting?
Specifically, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the meeting will focus on restoring US relations and setting consultations for the possibility of a Ukrainian peace agreement.
The talks are one of the first high-level face-to-face discussions of the year between Russians and US officials, and aim to precede the meeting between Trump and Putin.
Rubio said the coming weeks and days will determine whether Putin is serious about creating peace.
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Trump’s special Ukrainian and Russian envoy Keith Kellogg is not expected to attend the meeting as he is at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels, but he plans to mediate a war contract with Russia. I’ve worked with Trump.
They provide details about such plans and also provide timescales for their implementation.
The meeting is behind Trump’s phone call with Putin last week.
The US President wrote about the true social call, “As we both agree, we want to stop the deaths of millions of people in the war with Russia/Ukraine.
“We agreed to work very closely, including visiting each other’s countries, and each team agreed to start negotiations soon.”
Ukraine and Europe are not invited
The US and Russia are removing Ukraine and Europe from the conference as tensions grow between the US and European countries grow.
It urges European leaders to put together their own improvisation consultations in Paris, with Ir Kiel saying, “We cannot allow them to distract us from the external enemies we face.” .
Ukrainian President Voldimi Zelensky confirmed that his country has been excluded from talks in Saudi Arabia, saying that negotiations without them “have no consequences.”
“And we cannot accept any arrangements about what was made without us, about us, and we do not recognize such an agreement,” he told reporters Monday.
Speaking to Sky News’ US partner network, NBC News, the Ukrainian president thanked Donald Trump for his support, but added, “There is no world leader who can actually do business with Vladimir Putin without us.” I did.
Asked if he believes Trump is negotiating in good faith, Zelensky said, “I hope so, I hope so, yes, I will depend on it.
“Trump trusts Trump because he is the president of the United States, because your people vote for him and I respect their choices.”
In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Rubio moved to reassure Europe and Ukraine.
He said: “If it’s a real negotiation and we’re not there yet, if it happens, Ukraine is an invasion and Europeans have to be involved, so Ukraine is They will have to be involved. They have also been deprived of sanctions on Putin and Russia, which they are contributing to this effort.”
