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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov before high -level talks between Washington and Moscow next week as relations merge between countries.
Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Middle East Messenger Steve Witkoff will meet Russian officials in Saudi Arabia next week, according to a person acquainted with the matter.
The high -level meeting comes after US President Donald Trump spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and both agreed to begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine “immediately”.
Rubio “reaffirmed President Trump’s commitment to find the end of the conflict in Ukraine,” said State Department spokesman Tammy Bruce for the Lavrov call. “In addition, they discussed the opportunity to work potentially together in a number of other bilateral issues.”
The call between Rubio and Lavrov is a significant sign that essential work has begun in negotiations and both nations are again in regular contact with the normalization of diplomacy. Saturday’s call was the first time the US and Russia had spoken at that level for nearly two years, though they have kept the channel communications behind.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Lavrov and Rubio agreed to work together in “restoring dialogue between the respectively respect” according to the lines set by Trump’s call with Putin on Wednesday and to set up a meeting between the two leaders.
They also agreed to create “a line of communication to solve problems in US-Russian relations in the interest of removing one-sided barriers for cooperation of trade, economy and useful mutual investments inherited from previous administration”, in a way Visible indication that the US was ready to support the sanctions against Moscow for the occupation.
Lavrov and Rubio shared a “mutual willingness to work together for current international affairs” such as Ukraine, Palestinian territories, Middle East and other issues, the ministry added. They also discussed raising mutual restrictions on each other’s embassies and agreed to create a level of expert level to agree “concrete steps for raising mutual barriers” that limit their work.
The US Embassy in Moscow and the Russian Embassy in Washington both operate with considerable restrictions on their staff after several rounds of title expulsion dating from accusations of Russian election intervention in Trump’s first victory in 2016 .
Trump on Thursday said there was still “a long way” to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, but that his calling with Putin marked “a long way ahead taking a solution” for war.
Trump said he had run Rubio, CIA director John Ratcliffe, Waltz and Witkoff to lead the US negotiating team. His envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg was significantly absent from this list.
Trump’s rhetoric and other US officials this week in connection with negotiations have alarmed KYIV and European capitals, who are afraid of being avoided in Washington’s negotiations with Moscow.
The US has urged European capitals to offer detailed proposals on weapons, peacekeeping troops and security arrangements they can provide with Ukraine as part of any security guarantee to end its war with Russia.
Washington sent a questionnaire to European governments to extend the continent’s readiness to protect Kyiv after the war, and measuring the price that Europe is ready to pay in exchange for a country at the negotiation table with Moscow.
