U.S. and Russian Delegations Agree on Four Points in Riyadh Talks Lasting About Four and a Half Hours
Delegations from the United States and Russia met at Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 18, 2025, in talks the Russian side said lasted about four and a half hours. The U.S. delegation was led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and included National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff; the Russian delegation was led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and included presidential aide Yury Ushakov. The meeting followed up on the February 12 phone call between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin; Rubio noted that there had been no regularized contact between the United States and Russia for more than three years.
Rubio said after the meeting that the two sides had agreed on four points. First, the two sides would direct their teams to work very quickly to reestablish the functionality of their respective diplomatic missions in Washington and Moscow, because continuing down this road requires diplomatic facilities that are operating normally. Second, the United States would appoint a high-level team to help negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine in a way that is enduring and acceptable to all the parties engaged. Third, the two sides would begin at a high level to discuss and examine the geopolitical and economic cooperation that could result from an end to the conflict in Ukraine, once that conflict has first come to a successful and enduring end. Fourth, the five officials who took part in the Riyadh meeting would remain engaged in the process to make sure it moves forward productively.
Waltz said the war needed a permanent end, not a temporary one of the kind seen in the past, and that territory and security guarantees were fundamental issues that would underlie the negotiations. Rubio called the meeting "the first step of a long and difficult journey," said ending any conflict requires concessions by all sides without the United States predetermining what those concessions would be, and said the European Union would have to be at the table at some point because it, too, has imposed sanctions. Witkoff called the session positive, upbeat, and constructive. Waltz said no date was set that day for a meeting between the two presidents, and he thanked Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi hosts for bringing the meeting together.
The Russian side was also positive about the talks. Lavrov called the meeting useful, and Ushakov said it had lasted about four and a half hours and covered bilateral relations and Ukraine.
Ukraine had no representative at the meeting. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking in Ankara on February 18 after meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Ukraine had not been invited to the Riyadh talks and had known nothing about them. He said Ukraine "cannot recognise any things or any agreements about us without us," that Ukraine wanted the war to end but in a fair way, with no decisions made behind its back, and he announced that he was postponing a planned visit to Saudi Arabia until March 10.
Responding to suggestions that Ukraine and Europe were being sidelined, Rubio said after the meeting that "no one is being sidelined here" and that an end to the conflict had to be acceptable to Ukraine, to America's partners in Europe, and to the Russian side. Waltz said that bringing the two sides together requires talking to both sides, and that communication with Ukraine was ongoing: within minutes of hanging up with Putin, Trump had called Zelenskyy. President Trump himself, speaking to reporters in Florida that day, dismissed concerns about Ukraine not having a seat, saying the Ukrainians had "had a seat for three years."
(Source: U.S. Department of State)
Source: U.S. Department of State
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：2025年2月18日，美俄代表团在沙特阿拉伯利雅得迪里耶宫会谈，美国国务卿 Marco Rubio、国家安全顾问 Mike Waltz、特使 Steve Witkoff 与沙特、俄罗斯官员同桌。（美国国务院官方照片，Freddie Everett 摄，公共领域） / Photo: U.S. and Russian delegations meet at Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 18, 2025, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff seated at left. (Official U.S. Department of State photo by Freddie Everett, public domain)
- 2025-02-12Trump and Putin Agree in Call Lasting About 90 Minutes to Start Talks Immediately to End the Ukraine War
- 2025-02-18U.S. and Russian Delegations Agree on Four Points in Riyadh Talks Lasting About Four and a Half HoursThis story
