February 19, 2025 | 10:28 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Washington said Russia and the United States (US) will appoint teams to negotiate a path to end the war in Russia as soon as possible. As cited by Al Arabiya, this plan was put forward after the meeting of the delegations of the two countries on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, without Ukraine or the European Union.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed to "appoint high-level teams respectively to begin work on the path to end the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible," said the US State Department.
Washington added that both sides have also agreed to "establish consultation mechanisms" to address "irritants" in the US-Russia relationship, noting that both sides will lay the groundwork for future cooperation.
Russia offered fewer details about the outcome of the talks, saying, "We discussed and outlined our principled positions, and agreed that separate negotiating teams will address this issue in due time."
However, there are no details about the possibility of a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin arising from the meeting in Riyadh, the first high-level official talks between Washington and Moscow since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
"It is still difficult to discuss specific dates for a meeting between the two leaders," said Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy assistant.
Some European leaders are concerned about Trump's shift in US policy towards Russia. They believe that Washington will make serious concessions to Moscow and rewrite the continent's security arrangements in a Cold War-style deal between the superpowers.
Russia has offered several perspectives on future discussions to end the fighting in Ukraine, arguing that ending the war requires a reorganization of European defense agreements.
Moscow has long called for the withdrawal of NATO forces from Eastern Europe, viewing the alliance as an existential threat to its flank.
"Sustainable and long-term resolution is not possible without a comprehensive consideration of security issues on the continent," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
Before the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow had demanded the withdrawal of NATO from Central and Eastern Europe.
European leaders held an emergency meeting in Paris the day before, but struggled to put up a united front.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in Turkey on Tuesday, said during the evening talks that he was not invited and would not "acknowledge anything or any agreements about us without us."
Isolated by the West for three years, Russia hopes for a "recovery" of relations with the United States and a return to the international arena. At the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, negotiations began without any visible handshake.
Starting Negotiations
Both Russia and the United States have made Tuesday's meeting the start of a potentially long process and underestimated the prospects for a breakthrough.
Russia's Ushakov told government media that the talks will address "how to start negotiations on Ukraine."
Trump said he wants to end the war in Ukraine, but so far has not presented a concrete plan.
The United States has urged both sides that concessions must be made for peace talks to materialize.
Russia said on the night of the summit that there was not even "thought" of handing over seized territory from Ukraine.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Ukraine has the "right" to join the European Union, but not the NATO military alliance.
It was also said that Putin "is ready" to negotiate with Zelensky "if necessary," although he reiterated his question about "legitimacy" -- a reference to his five-year term that ended last year, although Ukrainian law does not require elections during wartime.
The Ukrainian leader was in Turkey on Tuesday to discuss the conflict with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He was scheduled to be in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, although he said he did not plan to meet with US or Russian officials.
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