Russia’s FM traveling to Saudi Arabia to prepare Trump-Putin meeting: Kremlin

Last week, Trump held his first phone call with Putin since returning to office. Following the 90-minute conversation, Moscow and Washington announced that the two leaders would soon meet face to face, and later revealed that the summit would take place in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Speaking to journalists on Monday, Peskov stated that Lavrov and Ushakov, at the instruction of Putin, are traveling to Riyadh to meet with an American delegation on Tuesday. The talks will be dedicated to the rebuilding of bilateral ties, including upcoming talks on resolving the Ukraine crisis and the organization of the Putin-Trump summit.

Peskov explained that Saudi Arabia was chosen as the location for the high-level talks because it “suits both the American and Russian sides.”

The spokesman noted that it is not yet clear when or if the talks on ending the Ukraine conflict would take place, stressing that the possibility of holding such negotiations will only be discussed on Tuesday between the Russian and American delegations.

However, he stressed that “everyone is trying to talk about what needs to be done to stop the war at all costs,” claiming it was not long ago that many in the West wanted to prolong the fighting instead.

Throughout his election campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to quickly resolve the Ukraine conflict should he return to office. While initially promising to end the fighting in “24 hours,” Trump has since instructed his special envoy on Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, to find a solution within the first 100 days of his presidency.

According to a Bloomberg report on Sunday, Trump’s administration is now pushing to establish a ceasefire in the conflict by April 20. Kellogg has also stated that a US peace plan could be unveiled in the near future.

Moscow, meanwhile, has stressed that it has never shied away from peace talks but has emphasized that it would not accept a temporary freeze of the hostilities and would stick to its demands of resolving the root issues of the conflict, including Ukraine’s neutrality and demilitarization.