US secretary of state Marco Rubio has arrived in Saudi Arabia this morning ahead of expected talks with Russian officials aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
The talks come after Donald Trump last week spoke to Vladimir Putin by phone and ordered top officials to begin negotiations on the war.
Riyadh, which is also involved in talks with Washington over the future of the Gaza Strip, has played a role in early contacts between the Trump administration.
Rubio, who spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday, will meet Russian officials in Saudi Arabia alongside Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz and White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, a US source told Reuters.
The talks will be among the first high-level in-person discussions in years between Russian and US officials and are meant to precede a meeting between Trump and Putin.
Rubio yesterday said the coming weeks and days would determine whether Putin is serious about making peace.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also in the region and arrived in the United Arab Emirates yesterday.
European leaders have not been invited to these peace talks between the US and Russia.
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