22/02/2025 14:49
The Guardian
Russian and US leaders will meet face to face in move towards normalising relations, deputy foreign minister saysPreparations for a face-to-face meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are under way, Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said.The event would mark a dramatic shift away from western isolation of Moscow, which has been in place since Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. Speaking to Russian state media, Sergei Ryabkov said a possible Putin-Trump summit could involve broad talks on global issues, not just Ukraine. “The question is about starting to move towards normalising relations between our countries, finding ways to resolve the most acute and potentially very, very dangerous situations, of which there are many, Ukraine among them,” he said. But he said efforts to organise such a meeting were at an early stage, and that making it happen would require “the most intensive preparatory work”. Ryabkov added that US and Russian envoys could meet “within the next two weeks” to pave the way for further talks between senior officials. Russian and US representatives agreed on Tuesday to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties, according to the two countries’ top diplomats, at a high-level meeting in Saudi Arabia that marked an extraordinary about-face in US foreign policy under Trump. After the meeting, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told the Associated Press that the two sides agreed broadly to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow; to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks; and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation. He stressed, however, that the talks, which were attended by his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and other senior Russian and US officials, marked the beginning of a conversation, and more work needed to be done. Lavrov, for his part, said the meeting was “very useful”. No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting. The country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops, nearly three years after Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its smaller neighbour. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said his country would not accept any outcome of the talks, since Kyiv didn’t take part, and he postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia, which had been scheduled for last Wednesday. European allies have also expressed concerns that they are being sidelined. Continue reading...
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