The great level political meeting, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 17th, is reported to have been successful by both the Russian and US sides.
Steve Witkoff, who is Trump’s range one troubleshooter, said that the conference was “positive, cheerful, creative and really good”. Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister and rival to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said the appointment in Riyadh was “very useful”.
Actually the US group was led by Rubio along with Mike Waltz, national security advisor to the President, and Witkoff. We are unable to identify any individuals on the US area.
Rubio claimed that there were three main points at the table:
- establishing diplomatic team to improve Washington and Moscow’s political operations
- establishing higher levels groups to sort out the “parameters of the issue” in Ukraine, and
- a second track to discover potential financial partnerships that could arise after the resolution of the Ukraine conflict, which the US part characterized as a “potentially historical financial prospect” for Russia.
Additionally, Lavrov stated that a meeting of the deputy foreign ministers would be held to discuss the specifics of a Trump-Putin meeting. No specific date was set for a Trump-Putin meeting.
Sergey Lavrov and Yury Ushakov, the president’s foreign affairs advisor, made up the top-level Russian delegation. Kirill Dmitriev was also a member of the Russian delegation. The Russian Direct Investment Fund ( RDIF), Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, is led by Dimitri V. Vladimir Proskuryakov and Dmitry Balakin were also present on the Russian side.
Proskuryakov has a focus on Arctic affairs and works for the Russian Embassy in Canada. Possible cooperation in the Artic was a topic of conversation in Riyadh. Although no specifics are available, it is likely that the discussion focused on the use of Artic resources and the creation of shipping routes if climate change continues to affect shipping.
It is reported that Dmitriev held side meetings in Riyadh on monetary and investment issues, but we don’t know who served as Dmitriev’s counterpart, although that could have been Steve Witkoff.
Both the US Embassy in Moscow and the Russian Embassy in Washington are conducting diplomatic operations while restrictions need to be lifted, essentially accelerating diplomatic normalization. This includes many elements. Following the meeting, Mr. Lavrov called attention to this and stated after the meeting that” It is necessary to remove the obstacles created by the Biden administration that impede the work of diplomats, including ongoing expulsions and seizures of real estate.”
In the debriefing of the meeting, Lavrov made a powerful point about Ukraine. Lavrov said” Not only did we listen, but we genuinely heard each other”.
Kyiv was not invited to speak at the talks, nor was any other state or organization from Europe. A flurry of activity in Europe has resulted from the lack of participation, leading to an “emergency” meeting called by France ( but excluding some NATO members who are opposed to supporting the Ukrainian war ).
Director General of NATO Marc Rutte, did attend the Paris meeting. It isn’t exactly clear why he did so, with some NATO members not invited, nor is it clear why he would do so without US agreement.
One result of the meeting, attended by the EU as a participant, were harsh statements aimed primarily at Washington and British pledge to send troops to Ukraine as part of some “peacekeeping” venture. The Germans, Italians and Poles disagreed with the British initiative.
The Russians have made it clear at the Riyadh meeting and in public statements, that NATO “peacekeepers” would not be welcome.
Lavrov said in his debriefing that a so-called three-step plan for Ukraine , is a fake.  , The alleged plan has been attributed to Marco Rubio. ” The , plan includes , high-level meetings involving Ukraine and European nations and concessions from all sides, Rubio said”. The three steps are said to be ( 1 ) a ceasefire, ( 2 ) elections in Ukraine and ( 3 ) a final agreement.
It isn’t clear that a ceasefire was discussed, or Ukrainian elections. According to all credible reports, President Trump and President Putin both agreed to discuss potential terms for a settlement.
Numerous maps have been published in the press that show what a deal would look like and how the key points were discussed in Riyadh.
Readers should be informed that none of these maps appear to accurately represent the actual discussion in Riyadh, which covered the Russian and US positions on the conflict but did not go far enough to authorize further discussions to prepare for a Trump-Putin meeting.
The Riyadh meeting was conducting in a professional manner, without posturing or accusations. This is a major change from the rhetoric that dominated the Biden administration, although it remains a key component of Euro-rhetoric.
Stephen Bryen is a former US deputy undersecretary of defense for policy and a special correspondent for Asia Times. This article, which originally appeared on his Substack newsletter , Weapons and Strategy, is republished with permission.