Vladimir Putin meets with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud at Riyadh’s Al Yamamah Palace, Saudi Arabia, 6 December 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE / ALEXEI NIKOLSKY / SPUTNIK
The first official high-level meeting between representatives of Russia and the United States for three years is to be held in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov announced on Monday.
Peskov added that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and senior Putin aide Yury Ushakov would be leading the Kremlin delegation at the talks, the objective of which was “negotiating a settlement in Ukraine and organising a meeting between the two presidents”.
According to Russian business daily Kommersant, the US is to be represented at the talks by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and his Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
Bloomberg reported that the two delegations were due to meet in the Saudi capital in an attempt to pave the way for a face-to-face summit between Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, which could take place later this month.
The Saudi leadership had also invited Ukrainian representatives to attend the talks, according to Bloomberg, though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his office denied receiving an invitation.
Nevertheless, Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said that a Ukrainian delegation had flown into the country on Sunday to prepare for a planned visit to Saudi Arabia by Zelensky, though she stressed that it was not there to attend the US-Russia talks.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Zelensky said that the only Russian he would meet for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine was Putin himself.
