Russia says US 'better' understands its position after Saudi talks with no seat for Ukraine

Russia says US 'better' understands its position after Saudi talks with no seat for Ukraine
by AFP Staff Writers
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (AFP) Feb 18, 2025

Russia said on Tuesday that the United States "better" understood Moscow's position after high-level talks between the two nuclear powers in Saudi Arabia.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the first high-level contact between Moscow and Washington since the Ukraine invasion began, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the conversation was "very useful".

"We did not just listen but heard each other, and I have reason to believe the American side has better understood our position," Lavrov told reporters.

He said Russia told the United States it opposed any NATO member sending troops to Ukraine as part of a ceasefire, whether under a national flag or that of the European Union.

"This is unacceptable to us, of course," Lavrov added.

The two sides also agreed to ensure the "prompt appointment" of ambassadors to each other's countries, the foreign minister said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin relieved his former ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, last year but did not name a replacement.

His US counterpart Donald Trump is yet to appoint his ambassador for Moscow.

Lavrov also said the United States expressed an interest in lifting sanctions on Moscow.

"There was strong interest in removing artificial barriers to the development of mutually beneficial economic cooperation," he said.

The two sides agreed on a process for starting negotiations on ending the fighting in Ukraine, Lavrov added.

"The United States side will announce who will represent Washington, and as soon as we know the name and position of the appropriate representative, we will, as President Putin told President Trump, immediately designate our participant in this process."

US-Russia talks begin in Saudi, no seat for Ukraine
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (AFP) Feb 18, 2025 - Top US and Russian diplomats were meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks on resetting their countries' fractured relations and making a tentative start on trying to end the Ukraine war.

Both sides played down the chances that the first high-level meeting between the countries since US President Donald Trump took office would result in a breakthrough.

Still, the very fact the talks were taking place has triggered concern in Ukraine and Europe following the United States' recent overtures towards the Kremlin.

Reporters in Riyadh said the meeting between US and Russian diplomats began in the morning at the Saudi capital's Diriyah Palace.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv was not invited to the discussions in Riyadh. European leaders met in Paris on Monday for emergency talks on how to respond to the radical pivot by the new Trump administration.

Preparations for a possible summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are also expected to be on the agenda.

Trump is pushing for a swift resolution to the three-year conflict in Ukraine, while Russia sees his outreach as a chance to win concessions.

Zelensky said Kyiv "did not know anything about" the talks in Riyadh, according to Ukrainian news agencies, and that it "cannot recognise any things or any agreements about us without us".

He said on social media that any peace deal would need to include "robust and reliable" security guarantees, which France and Britain have called for but not all European powers support.

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun welcomed "efforts towards peace" in Ukraine, adding that "at the same time, we hope that all parties and stakeholders can participate" in talks.

Russia said ahead of the meeting that Putin and Trump wanted to move on from "abnormal relations" and that it saw no place for Europeans to be at any negotiating table.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and senior Putin aide Yuri Ushakov will meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

- Possible Trump-Putin summit -

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the talks would be "primarily devoted to restoring the whole complex of Russian-American relations", alongside discussions on "possible negotiations on a Ukrainian resolution, and organising a meeting between the two presidents".

Moscow, which for years has sought to roll back NATO's presence in Europe, has made clear it wants to hold bilateral talks with the United States on a plethora of broad security issues, not just a possible Ukraine ceasefire.

Before invading in February 2022, Putin was demanding the military alliance pull its troops, equipment and bases out of several eastern members that were under Moscow's sphere of influence during the Cold War.

The prospects of any talks leading to an agreement to halt the Ukraine fighting are unclear.

Both Russia and the United States have cast the meeting as the beginning of a potentially lengthy process.

"I don't think that people should view this as something that is about details or moving forward in some kind of a negotiation," US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

Russia's Ushakov told state media the talks would discuss "how to start negotiations on Ukraine."

Both Ukraine and Russia have ruled out territorial concessions and Putin last year demanded Kyiv withdraw its troops from even more territory.

Zelensky was in Turkey on Tuesday for discussions on the conflict with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He is due in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

He does not plan to hold talks with either the US or Russian delegations, his spokesman said.

Zelensky said last week he was prepared to meet Putin, but only after Kyiv and its allies had a common position on ending the war.

- Saudi back in the fold -

As European leaders gathered in Paris for an emergency security summit, Russia's Lavrov said Monday he saw no point in them taking part in any Ukraine talks.

The significance of the talks taking place in Riyadh was not lost on analysts.

A diplomatic pariah under the former US administration, it has been brought back into the fold with Trump's return.

"Europe's the traditional meeting place for the Americans and the Russians, but that's not an option in the current environment," said James Dorsey of the National University of Singapore.

"You either go to Asia or you go to Saudi Arabia," he said.

Moscow heads into the talks boosted by recent gains on the battlefield, while Kyiv also faces the prospect of losing vital US military aid, long criticised by Trump.