THE United States and Russia have confirmed that their top delegates will meet in Saudi Arabia this week to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, in a move that has sparked concern among European leaders left out of the US-led effort.
Senior US and Russian officials will hold talks in Riyadh on Tuesday in an effort to lay the groundwork for peace talks, the US Department of State and the Kremlin confirmed on Monday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to President Vladimir Putin, were due to travel to the Saudi capital, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
They will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, the State Department said.
The confirmation comes just days after US President Donald Trump said he and Putin had agreed in a phone call to begin negotiations to end the war, which will hit the three-year mark later this month.
Trump’s push for bilateral talks with Moscow has raised alarm about what place Ukraine and its European allies would have at the negotiating table.
It also has spurred concerns that the US president could hand concessions to Russia, and that Europe’s security architecture and its defence partnership with the US could be weakened.
European leaders met in Paris on Monday to discuss their response to Washington’s policy shift on Ukraine, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying Europe’s security was at a “turning point”.
“Yes, it is about Ukraine – but it is also about us,” she said as she arrived at the emergency meeting. “We need an urgency mindset. We need a surge in defence. And we need both of them now.”
Reporting from Paris, Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler said there was “a real sense of urgency” among European leaders gathered in the French capital.
“It has become clear that the transatlantic partnership is no longer strong at all,” Butler said. “They see the US has already stepped away and they are very scared that what is agreed between Trump and Putin could have an impact on the future of Europe’s security.”
