Trump team to start Russia-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia
As we mentioned in the opening summary, there are reports that senior Trump officials are heading to Saudi Arabia next week to begin so-called peace talks with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators.
US national security adviser Mike Waltz, secretary of state Marco Rubio and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Saudi Arabia, according to Politico.
Michael McCaul, chair of the US house foreign affairs committee, said the talks were aimed at arranging a meeting with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy “to finally bring peace and end this conflict”.
US officials said that Ukraine was also invited – although Zelenskyy says his country has received no such invitation, underlining concerns about US efforts to exclude Ukraine and European leaders from the talks.
According to Politico, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine-Russia talks, retired Gen Keith Kellogg, will not be in attendance. There are no plans to send a delegation from Kyiv to the talks, as the news of the meeting in Saudi Arabia reportedly came as a surprise to Ukrainian officials.
Key events
Opening summary
The Munich security conference concludes today after a dramatic two days during which the US vice-president, JD Vance, excoriated European leaders, accusing them of suppressing free speech, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, declared it was time to create a European army.
With Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine looming over the conference, the two men met at its sidelines, with Zelenskyy demanding “security guarantees” and a joint US-Ukrainian peace plan before he enters into any talks with Moscow.
But what may have loomed even larger is the phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin earlier in the week, during which the US and Russian leaders agreed to begin talks on a ceasefire – sparking fears that Ukraine and Europe would be cut out of any negotiations.
With European leaders scrambling to mount a united front on Saturday, Marco Rubio spoke on the phone with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and there are reports the US’s top diplomat will lead a delegation to Saudi Arabia next week to meet Russian officials and start talks on ending the war.
In other developments:
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Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Europe will be consulted – but ultimately excluded – from the talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US. “To my European friends, I would say: ‘Get into the debate, not by complaining that you might, yes or no, be at the table, but by coming up with concrete proposals, ideas, ramp up [defence] spending’,” Kellogg said at the Munich conference on Saturday.
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Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, said “Europe needs to talk less and do more”, in response to the prospect of being shut out of talks. “There’s no way in which we can have discussions or negotiations about Ukraine, Ukraine’s future or European security structure, without Europeans,” Stubb told reporters in Munich. “But this means that Europe needs to get its act together.”
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The Nato chief, Mark Rutte, said Europe had to come up with “good proposals” for securing peace in Ukraine if it wanted to be involved in US-led talks. “If Europeans want to have a say, make yourself relevant,” Rutte told journalists.
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Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, and Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, have discussed Kyiv’s vision of a path to peace with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi. Sybiha said on X the meeting that took place on the sidelines of the Munich conference was to “reaffirm mutual respect for territorial integrity”. On Friday, Wang told the conference that China believes all stakeholders in the war in Ukraine should participate in the peace talks, underscoring Europe’s role in them.
Article by:Source: Yohannes Lowe
