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The United States and Russia agreed on Tuesday to address “irritants” to the U.S.-Russia relationship and begin working on a path to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, the State Department said, making clear the effort was in its early stages, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met for 4.5 hours with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia as a follow-up to U.S. President Donald Trump’s telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week.<\/p>\n
According to CNN, Rubio said the US and Russia\u00a0agreed on four principles\u00a0including appointing a high-level team to help \u201cnegotiate and work through the end of the conflict in Ukraine\u201d in a way that\u2019s \u201cacceptable to all the parties engaged.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not invited to the talks,\u00a0said Ukraine will not \u201cgive in to Russia\u2019s ultimatums\u201d\u00a0and earlier said he would refuse to sign any agreement negotiated without Kyiv\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, US national security adviser Mike Waltz said that the talks to end Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine will involve discussions of territory and security guarantees.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know just the practical reality is that there is going to be some discussion of territory and there\u2019s going to be discussion of security guarantees. Those are just fundamental bases that will, that will undergird and underlie any type of discussion,\u201d Waltz said after talks with Russian officials in Riyadh.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the US would find it acceptable for Russia to retain Ukrainian territory it has annexed since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Waltz said this is \u201cto be discussed.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Left to right – US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, National Security Advisor Mosaad bin Mohammad al-Aiban, the Russian president’s foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attend a meeting together at Riyadh’s Diriyah Palace<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n