The heads of the US diplomacy and Russia, Marco Rubio and Serguéi Lavrov, talked on Saturday by phone.
The heads of US diplomacy and Russia, Marco Rubio and Serguéi Lavrovthey talked on Saturday by phone and agreed to keep in touch regularly to prepare the summit Among the presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putinboth governments reported.
There is still no set for the summit, but Trump He affirmed this week that it could be held in Saudi Arabia and that his goal would be to end war in Ukraine.
As indicated by the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement, The call was made on the initiative of Washington and in it both ministers “reaffirmed their willingness to collaborate to restore an interstate dialogue based on mutual respectin line with the tone marked by the presidents “in his conversation on Wednesday.
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In addition, Moscow said that “both parties expressed their willingness to cooperate in current international matters, including conflict resolution in Ukraine, the situation in PalestineAnd, in general, in the Middle Eastas well as in other regional issues. “
For its part, the US Department of State explained in another statement that, during the call, Rubio reaffirmed Trump’s “commitment” to find a solution to the conflict in Ukraine.
The announcement of the conversation came shortly before Rubio arrived in Jerusalem, As part of a tour that will also take him to Saudi Arabiawhere it is expected to meet with Russian officials to start negotiations in order to end the war in Ukraine, according to the CNN, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter.
In addition to Rubio, it is expected that in those conversations Participate the National Safety Advisor of the White House, Mike Waltzand the envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
According to CNN, the Russian delegation could include high political, intelligence and economic positions, Among them Kirill Dmitrievthe official who played a key role in the recent exchange of prisoners between the two countries: that of the American professor Marc Fogelarrested in Russia since 2021, for the alleged Russian cybercrime Alexander Vinnik.
The conversation between Trump and Putin, after which the American called his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimir Zelenskiit was the first public contact between the presidents of the United States and Russia since February 2022, when Putin spoke with the then president, Joe Bidenbefore the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
After the call, Trump announced that had reached an agreement with Putin so that both countries initiate “negotiations immediately” with the aim of ending war in Ukraine.
In later days, the president broke with the position maintained by the Biden government stating that Ukraine’s aspiration to join NATO is not “practice” and consider “unlikely” That the country recovered the entire territory occupied by Russia since 2014, including the Crimean Peninsulawhich means concessions to Moscow.
In addition, the Trump administration has defended that Europe should not participate in negotiations with Russia and, unlike Biden, has begun to discuss directly with Moscow the terms of a possible agreement without counting Ukraine.
The Russian offensive in Ukraine began in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea. Subsequently, in February 2022, The Kremlin launched a large -scale invasion which was sentenced vigorously by the West.
In response, the United States, together with the European Union and Canada, He imposed hard sanctions against the Russian economy and sent large amounts of humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine.
