The Russian foreign minister will meet the US leader’s team in Riyadh on Tuesday to discuss future presidential talks
FILE PHOTO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. © Sputnik / Maksim Blinov Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, will travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet with US President Donald Trump’s team to prepare the ground for an upcoming meeting of the two leaders, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has announced. 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.” READ MORE: Trump wants Ukraine ceasefire by Easter – Bloomberg 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.
