US State Secretary Rubio briefs U.S. Media following high-stakes talks with Russia

Riyadh, February 18, 2025

Following a pivotal meeting with a Russian delegation led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Riyadh, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff fielded questions from CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and the Associated Press’ Matthew Lee. Their remarks were later published on the U.S. State Department’s website.

QUESTION:  We’re joined now by the U.S. delegation that just wrapped up their meetings with the Russians.  Are you walking away with this with any agreements for any follow-on conversations?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, I would start by saying we’ve agreed on four principles that I think are important.  First is that we are going to work – we’re going to point our teams’ respectively to work very quickly to reestablish the functionality of our respective missions in Washington and in Moscow.  For us to be able to continue to move down this road, we need to have diplomatic facilities that are operating and functioning normally.

The second point is that we’re going to appoint a high-level team from our end to help negotiate and walk – work through the end of the conflict in Ukraine in a way that’s enduring and acceptable to all the parties engaged.

The third point is to begin to work at a high level as well to begin to discuss and think about and examine both the geopolitical and economic cooperation that could result from an end to the conflict in Ukraine.  Obviously, we have to see that conflict come to a successful and enduring end in order for that to be possible.

And the last thing we agreed to that is that, while our teams are going to be working on all of this, the four of us who were here today – the five of us that were here today are going to remain engaged in this process to make sure that it’s moving along in a productive way.

QUESTION:  What does an enduring and successful end look like?  Did you present any proposals to the Russians today?

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR WALTZ:  Well, there are some underlying principles.  This needs to be a permanent end to the war and not a temporary end, as we’ve seen in the past.  We know just the practical reality is that there is going to be some discussion of territory and there is going to be a discussion of security guarantees.  Those are just fundamental basics that will undergird and underlie any type of discussion.

But I think the most important part is the President has stated his desire, his determination, to end this war, to end the killing that is going on.  The death and destruction that is happening as this war goes on and on, month after month after month in the killing fields of eastern and southern Ukraine, is unacceptable.  It is not in the interest of either country.  It’s not in the interest of the world and certainly not in the interest of United States and Europe.

So all of those things will drive the negotiations going forward.  And as you can see, the President – President Trump is determined to move very quickly.  We just had a head-of-state phone call, the first in years.  And here we are, less than a week later, at the highest level of the U.S. and Russian Government.  And we expect to continue to drive that pace to not only end the war but then to unlock what could be very productive and stabilizing relationships going forward.

QUESTION:  You mentioned territory.  Is it acceptable to the U.S. for Russia to retain any territory that is annexed since the beginning of the war in February 2022?

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR WALTZ:  Well, I think those are things that – those are to be discussed.  And those are things that we will start and do the tough work ahead.  But the important thing is that we’ve started that process.  And what the President did not find acceptable was an endless war in Europe that was literally turning into – has turned into a meat grinder of people on both sides.

So if you just think about just in a few months President Trump has shifted the entire global conversation from not if the war is going to end but just how it’s going to end.  And only President Trump can do that.  And in the Oval Office less than a week ago, both President Putin and President Zelenskyy both said to him only you, President Trump, can drive this war to a conclusion.

QUESTION:  What concessions do you expect of the Russians?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, again, we’re not going to pre-negotiate it, nor – an end to this conflict.  These are the kinds of things that have to happen through hard and difficult diplomacy in closed rooms over a period of time.  What’s important to understand is two things.

The first is the only leader in the world who can make this happen, who can even bring people together to begin to talk about it in a serious way, is President Trump.  He’s the only one in the world who can do that right now.

The second thing I would say is that in order for a conflict to end, everyone involved in that conflict has to be okay with it, has to be – it has to be acceptable to them.  But we have to understand that it’s been three and a half years since there’s been any sort of regularized contact between the United States and Russia, and in some cases between any of the participants in this conflict and Russia.  So the goal of today’s meeting was to follow up on the phone call the President had a week ago and begin to establish those lines of communication.

The work remains.  Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey but an important one.  And President Trump is committed to bringing an end to this conflict, as he said when he campaigned for president.  And he wants it to be – end in a way that’s fair.  He wants it to end in a way that’s sustainable and enduring, not that leads to another conflict in two to three years.  That’s not going to be easy to achieve, but he is the only one in the world that can begin that process.  Donald Trump is the only leader in the world that could initiate that process, and today was the first step in that process.

QUESTION:  Is sanctions relief going to be involved in any of this normalizing, or trying to more level-set the relationship between the U.S. and Russia?  Did the Russians bring up sanctions relief in the meeting today?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, sanctions are all the result of this conflict.  There are sanctions that were imposed as a result of this conflict.  And so I would say to you that in order to bring an end to any conflict there has to be concessions made by all sides.  We’re not going to predetermine what those are.  We’re certainly not going to negotiate this today or in a press conference for that matter.  But – and there are other parties that have sanctions.  The European Union is going to have to be at the table at some point because they have sanctions as well that have been imposed.

So – but I guess the point here is the goal is – and we agreed on what the goal is – the goal is to bring an end to this conflict in a way that’s fair, enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all parties involved.  What that looks like, well, that’s what this – what the ongoing engagement is going to be all about.

QUESTION:  The Ukrainians and the Europeans have suggested they feel very sidelined about how the process has played out so far.  How do you intend to address their concerns?  Will they be incorporated in future meetings in a multilateral way?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, the comment I would have on that is that for three and a half years while this conflict has raged, the three years while it’s raged, no one else has been able to bring something together like what we saw today, because Donald Trump is the only leader in the world that can.  So no one is being sidelined here.  But President Trump is in a position that he campaigned on to initiate a process that could bring about an end to this conflict, and from that could emerge some very positive things for the United States, for Europe, for Ukraine, for the world.  But first it begins by the end of this conflict.

And so the only thing President Trump’s trying to do is bring about peace.  It’s what he campaigned on.  It’s something the world should be thanking President Trump for doing.  He was able – he’s been able to achieve what for three – two and a half, three years no one else has been able to achieve, which is to bring – to begin this process, a serious process.  Obviously, a lot of work remains before we have a result.  But President Trump’s the only one that can do it.

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR WALTZ:  I think it – look, it’s common sense.  If you’re going to bring both sides together, you have to talk to both sides.  And we’ll continue to remind everyone literally within minutes of President Trump hanging up with President Putin he called and spoke with President Zelenskyy.  So shuttle diplomacy has happened throughout history, it’s happened all over the world.  We are absolutely talking to both sides.  The Secretary of State just met with President Zelenskyy days ago, along with the Vice President, seven Cabinet members in Europe at the same time – really showing the importance of engaging our allies.  President Trump spoke with President Macron just yesterday.  Prime Minister Starmer is coming to Washington next week.

So I think we’ll – the facts – we’ll continue to push back on this notion that our allies haven’t been consulted.  They’re being – they are being consulted literally almost on a daily basis.  And we’ll continue to do so.

QUESTION:  Did you set a date for the two presidents to meet at this meeting?  When can we expect that meeting?

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR WALTZ:  We did not.  We did not set that date.  But the two presidents talked about meeting and expect to meet.

QUESTION:  Can you take us a little bit in the room today?  What was the interaction like?  How would you characterize the discussions?

MR WITKOFF:  It was positive, upbeat, constructive, everybody there to get to the right outcome, solution-based.  We discussed it afterwards.  We couldn’t have imagined a better result after this session.  It was very, very solid.

QUESTION:  Will you be traveling to Russia again, Mr. Witkoff?

MR WITKOFF:  I’m not sure.  But we’ll make that determination in the next couple of weeks.

QUESTION:  The Europeans – Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister has said the U.S. needs to back any sort of European solution to the war.  Is this something that you are willing to commit to?

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR WALTZ:  Well, I think that’s something that we’ll continue to discuss.  We have certainly again, as a first principle, a European-led security guarantee.  We have – the President, many of us as members of – prior members of Congress, ourselves, have called for the Europeans to continue to contribute to our common defense, to continue to share the burden of NATO defense.  We’ll continue to point out that while things have improved, starting with President Trump’s first term, the fact that a third of our NATO Allies still do not contribute the minimum of 2 percent of their GDP to defense a decade after that we all collectively made that agreement isn’t acceptable.  We have the NATO summit coming up this June, and we would expect with the type of conflict, the type of warfare and destruction we’ve seen in Europe sadly the last several years, that we have 100 percent at the minimum, and in fact are exceeding that.

So look, this is a – this is a common effort.  This isn’t just about what the United States is going to continue to contribute and what we are going to continue to ask of the American taxpayer.  We all have to make those tough decisions, we all have to contribute to our common defense, and we expect that – this to be a two-way street for our European allies.  And the fact that both the United Kingdom, France, and others are talking about contributing more forcefully to Ukraine’s security we think is a good thing.

QUESTION:  Did you walk away from this meeting convinced the Russians want peace?  You said it might take some time to be convinced of that?  How are you seeing it now?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  I mean, I don’t view diplomacy that way.  I think diplomacy ultimately is based on actions.  It’s based on commitments that are kept.  So I think they – I came away today convinced that they are willing to begin to engage in a serious process to determine how, how quickly, and through what mechanism can an end be brought to this war.  Whether we can ultimately reach that outcome will obviously depend on every side in this conflict’s willingness to agree to certain things.

So I think it’s important to have this meeting because we haven’t really had much engagement with the Russians for almost three years, and it sets the table for future conversations.  How that turns out will be up to the parties and their willingness not just to make commitments, but to live by them.  That’ll be tested in the weeks to come.  But I can tell you again, as I reiterate, President Trump has made it – he made it very clear during the campaign he thought this conflict needed to end.  He’s the only leader in the world that could’ve started a process that we saw here today, and this process is going to continue.  And when you talk about an enduring and sustainable end to the conflict, it means one that’s acceptable to everyone involved in it.  And that obviously includes Ukraine, but also our partners in Europe, and of course the Russian side as well.

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR WALTZ:  Sorry, I didn’t mean to jump in there, but I just wanted to also take a moment I think on behalf of all of us and the President to thank our partners in Saudi Arabia, to thank our hosts for bringing this together, and particularly the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his team.  We are moving quickly, which means they moved very quickly to be such gracious hosts, and we certainly are all appreciative.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Absolutely.

QUESTION:  And if I could ask a last question:  Will the Saudis take on a more active mediation role as these talks move forward?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, that’s a decision for the kingdom to make, but I can tell you that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is playing an indispensable role in making today possible – not just hosting us, but bringing the parties together to have these conversations.

I think it’s something we’re very grateful – something, we’re very grateful for the partnership that we have with them on a host issues, and this being one of them.  We thank them for doing it, and we hope that they will – I think they’ve offered, and I believe that they will, continue to be helpful in any way they can.

QUESTION:  Great.  Thank you, all.  I really appreciate it.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Thanks.

QUESTION:  Can I just add a couple —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Sure.

QUESTION:  I’ll be extremely brief.  I know you’re rushing to get a plane.  So what is the next step now?  The high-level team that you’ve mentioned is number two or number three or number four?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Yeah.  So let me walk you through.  The next step is multitrack.  The first next step is working through our respective teams at the diplomatic side just to ensure that our diplomatic missions can function.  There’s been a series of reciprocal actions taken over the last ten years that have really diminished our ability to operate in Moscow as an example, and they would argue their ability to operate in Washington.  We’re going to need to have vibrant diplomatic missions that are able to function normally in order to be able to continue these conduits.

The second is a high-level team, including those who are experts on these topics of the technical side, to begin to engage with their side on parameters of what an end to this conflict would look like.  And on that front, obviously, there’s going to be engagement and consultation with Ukraine, with our partners in Europe, and others.  But ultimately there are – the Russian side will be indispensable to this effort and to – so that process will begin.

And then the third is – together with those other two – is beginning to engage in identifying the extraordinary opportunities that exists.  Should this conflict come to an acceptable end, the incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians, geopolitically on issues of common interest, and frankly economically on issues that hopefully will be good for the world and will also improve our relations in the long term between these two important countries.  So all three of those efforts will be happening in conjunction with one another.

Obviously, the diplomatic one is one we think we’d hope to move pretty quickly on because this involves the treatment of our respective missions.  The second one will be difficult, which is the question of Ukraine and the end of that conflict, but I think that’s essential in order for the third piece to even be possible, which is our ability to work together on other geopolitical matters of common interest and, of course, some pretty unique, potentially historic economic partnerships as well.  The key that unlocks the door for those opportunities, however, is the end to this conflict.

QUESTION:  But – right.  But in terms of it – like when does the high-level team meet?  Has there been any date set for —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  There’s no date set, but that’s —

QUESTION:  Okay.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  We – President Trump is, as you’ve seen over the last four weeks, not patient in terms of getting action.  He drives.  He drives hard.  He wants to get things done.  He’s been wanting to do this, and he’s moving very quickly to fulfill the promises he made to the American people when they elected him as our president.

QUESTION:  Okay.  And then in terms of number one and the restoration of the diplomatic missions, you’ll remember that the first big tit of the tit for tats was after the Skripal poisoning, and the U.S., under one of your predecessors – Mr. Tillerson – expelled a lot of Russian diplomats, to which they responded.  The consulate in St. Petersburg closed – got closed down by the Russians.  You guys closed down the consulate in – what? – Seattle and several others.  Are those going to reopen?  Are the staffs going to go —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, that’s what we’re going to be talking about, and at a – ultimately – again, I’m not going to negotiate or work on that in public.  That’s what these channels will be about.  But ultimately, what the goal we need to have is we have to have some normalcy in our missions and their ability to function —

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR WALTZ:  And the main embassies even.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  And in the main embassies in particular.

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR WALTZ: Yeah, just the main embassies, regardless of the consulates.

QUESTION:  Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  I mean, if our diplomatic channels are broken, it’s going to be very difficult to consistently engage on a host of topics, including some unrelated irritants that could derail the broader talks on Ukraine.  So there has to be some improvement in the way our missions are able to work and in the environment and the space that they’re given to operate in.  So that’s something we want to move on quickly.  And it’s important to set the table for the other two things that we want to do.

But I think the key really in all of this is ultimately going to be whether an agreement can be reached with all parties involved on an acceptable resolution to the conflict in Ukraine.  Because if that happens, not only will the world be a better place, but I think there will be some pretty unique opportunities to work with them —

QUESTION:  Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  — on areas of bilateral, geopolitical interest and some very unique economic opportunities.  But we have to get the Ukraine situation resolved first in a way that’s acceptable to everyone.

QUESTION:  Okay.  My last one.  So – but does that mean if you get the status back to an operational – the normal operational level – staffs at the embassies – that you consider the Skripal case or the Crimea annexation to be closed or no longer issues?  Because I think – you mentioned Kier Starmer is going to be in Washington next week.  I can imagine that the Brits won’t be particularly pleased by that.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Yeah, again, I’m not – yeah, I’m not going to negotiate or talk through every element of the disruptions that exists – or have existed in our diplomatic relations and the mechanics of it.  Suffice to say that President Trump has pledged and intends to keep his promise to do everything he can to bring an end to this conflict.  We cannot do that unless we have at least some normalcy in the way our diplomatic missions operate in Moscow and in Washington, D.C.  And so, we need to work to improve that, and we’re going to work with them to see what’s possible within that context.

QUESTION:  Does that include removing Lavrov from taking – rescinding sanctions that are – have been imposed on  —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  We’re just not at that level of conversation yet, but certainly that’s – there’ll be a number of topics that’ll have to be discussed along the way.  They haven’t – we – that – we haven’t even begun that process.  Today was just an agreement to begin a process to talk about those things.

QUESTION:  All right.   Thank you.

Source – US State Department