American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
delegates led by
Marco Rubio
Marco Antonio Rubio (; born May 28, 1971) is an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat serving since 2025 as the 72nd United States Secretary of State, United States secretary of state. A member of the Republican Party (United States) , Rep ...
and 2
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
delegates led by
Sergey Lavrov
Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (, ; born 21 March 1950) is a Russian diplomat who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (Russia), Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2004. He is the longest-serving Russian foreign minister since Andrei Gromyko d ...
met in
Riyadh
Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate. Located on the eastern bank of Wadi Hanifa, the current form of the metropolis largely emerged in th ...
,
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...
to discuss improving
Russia–United States relations
The United States and the Russian Federation have had diplomatic relations since the establishment of the latter country in 1991, a continuation of the relationship the United States has had with various Russian governments since 1803. While bo ...
war in Ukraine
The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...
. Despite the meeting being primarily about
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
, no Ukrainian or
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an delegations were invited to the summit.
United States President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed For ...
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
has dismissed Ukrainian concerns that Ukraine was not invited to the summit, and also apparently implied Ukraine was to blame for starting the war. The Riyadh summit was the most extensive diplomatic meeting between the United States and Russia since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Background
The summit came less than a week after Donald Trump's
phone call
A telephone call, phone call, voice call, or simply a call, is the effective use of a connection over a telephone network between the calling party and the called party.
Telephone calls are the form of human communication that was first enabl ...
with
Russian President
The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the Federal State Council and the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. I ...
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...
on 12 February 2025 on a wide range of topics in which Trump and Putin agreed to begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. The day before the summit, several European leaders met in Paris to discuss the war in Ukraine. At the time of the summit, Russia forces had been making slow gains in southeastern Ukraine, however Ukrainian troops still occupied parts of Russia around the town of
Sudzha
Sudzha (, ) is a town and the administrative center of Sudzhansky District in Kursk Oblast, Russia, located on the Sudzha and Oleshnya rivers southwest of Kursk, the administrative center of the oblast. It has a population of 5,127 people. ...
. Trump had previously promised to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, however he later rolled back on this promise, saying his administration's new goal is to end the war within 100 days of taking office. The meeting was also held only two days after the conclusion of the 2025 Munich Security Conference, in which
United States Vice President
The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest ranking office in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The ...
JD Vance
James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman, August2, 1984) is an American politician, author, attorney, and Marine Corps veteran who is the 50th vice president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republic ...
Marco Rubio
Marco Antonio Rubio (; born May 28, 1971) is an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat serving since 2025 as the 72nd United States Secretary of State, United States secretary of state. A member of the Republican Party (United States) , Rep ...
stated that Ukraine and Europe would be part of any future "real negotiations" to end the war. President Trump said on the same day that the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy "will be involved" in peace negotiations.
United States–Russia talks
The call and summit represented a major shift in
United States foreign policy
The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...
towards Russia, as Trump criticised Ukrainian peace negotiation in the war, saying he was "very disappointed n Ukraine and that Ukraine has "been there for three years. kraineshould have ended it three years go– you should have never started it. You could have made a deal". Trump later said that Russia did invade, but that the United States shouldn't have let Russia attack. The summit was held in Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
United States Secretary of State
The United States secretary of state (SecState) is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State.
The secretary of state serves as the principal advisor to the ...
Marco Rubio and
Russian Foreign Minister
The minister of foreign affairs of the Russian Federation is a high-ranking Russian government official who heads the ministry of foreign affairs of the Russian Federation. The foreign minister is one of the five presidential ministers, along ...
Sergey Lavrov led the American and Russian delegations, respectively. On the American side, Marco Rubio,
Steve Witkoff
Steven Charles Witkoff (born March 15, 1957) is an American real estate investor and lawyer who has served as the Ambassadors of the United States#Special envoys, representatives, and coordinators, United States Special Envoy to the Middle East ...
, and
Mike Waltz
Michael George Glen Waltz (born January 31, 1974) is an American politician, businessman, author, and former United States Army Special Forces, Army Special Forces officer who is President Donald Trump's current nominee for United States ambassa ...
represented the United States at the summit while Sergey Lavrov and Yuri Ushakov represented Russia. The day before, several European officials met in Paris to discuss the war in Ukraine and the recent American reversal in foreign policy, including proposing to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine. However, Sergey Lavrov rejected any
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
peacekeeping force in Ukraine during the summit, saying "the
expansion of NATO
NATO is a military alliance of thirty-two European and North American countries that constitutes a system of collective defense. The process of joining the alliance is governed by Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which allows for the ...
, the absorption of Ukraine by the North Atlantic alliance, is a direct threat to the interests of the Russian Federation." Russia and the United States also agreed to restore staffing at each other's embassies.
The summit laid the groundwork for a future meeting between Putin and Trump, with Kremlin spokesperson
Dmitry Peskov
Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov (, ; born 17 October 1967) is a Russian diplomat serving as the Kremlin Press Secretary, spokesman for President of Russia, Russian president Vladimir Putin since 2012. Marco Rubio said a potential meeting between Trump and Putin would "largely depend on whether we can make progress on ending the war in Ukraine."
Responses
*: In response to Ukraine not being invited to the Riyadh summit, President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukraini ...
cancelled a planned visit to Saudi Arabia. Zelenskyy has also said that he will not accept any deal imposed on Ukraine without Ukraine's input. The summit contributed to the sharp deterioration of relations between Zelenskyy and Trump, after Trump called Zelenskyy a "dictator" and Zelenskyy said Trump was in a "disinformation bubble".
*: According to Secretary of State
Marco Rubio
Marco Antonio Rubio (; born May 28, 1971) is an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat serving since 2025 as the 72nd United States Secretary of State, United States secretary of state. A member of the Republican Party (United States) , Rep ...
, President Trump wanted to know if Russia is serious about ending the war, and stated "the only way is to test them, to basically engage them and say, 'Okay, are you serious about ending the war? And if so, what are your demands? Are your public demands and your private demands different?'"
*: On 19 February 2025,
Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Keir Starmer
Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and lawyer who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and as Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He previously ...
phoned Zelenskyy, saying that "it was perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War II". Starmer also "reiterated his support for the US-led efforts to get a lasting peace in Ukraine that deterred Russia from any future aggression". Starmer later said after a second call with Zelenskyy on 22 Feb that he would back Ukraine in peace talks with Donald Trump, and that safeguarding Ukrainian sovereignty was "essential to deter future aggression from Russia".
*:
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...
Radosław Sikorski
Radosław Tomasz Sikorski (; born 23 February 1963), also known as Radek Sikorski, is a Polish politician, journalist and statesman who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland since 2023, previously holding the office between 2007 and ...
Minister for Foreign Affairs
In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral re ...
Elina Valtonen said on 21 February 2025 that, "Peace in Ukraine must be just and lasting. Europe must take a leading role in supporting Ukraine. We must continue our support so that Ukraine will be able to negotiate from as powerful a position as possible. There can be no negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine and no negotiations about Europe without Europe".
*: Head of the Estonian delegation to the
OSCE
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the pr ...
Winter Meeting Mati Raidma said that "Global power relations are changing before our very eyes" and that Estonia must show full solidarity with Ukraine "in every possible way".
*:
Foreign Minister
In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...
Annalena Baerbock
Annalena Charlotte Alma Baerbock (; born 15 December 1980) is a German politician and diplomat of the Alliance 90/The Greens party. She served as Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany), Germany's minister for foreign affairs from 2021 to 2025. I ...
said in response to the Riyadh summit that "A sham peace, which would merely grant Russia a reprieve to prepare for new military offensives, would serve no one: not Ukraine, not Europe, and not the United States" and that Germany "will also need to further increase our bilateral support for Ukraine and take the necessary budgetary decisions whether we like it or not".
*: Speaker of the
Saeima
The Saeima () is the parliament of the Latvia, Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the p ...
Daiga Mieriņa
Daiga Mieriņa (née Cekule; previously Jurēvica, born 3 March 1969) is a Latvian politician who has been serving as the Speaker of the Saeima since 20 September 2023.
Life
Born in Riga, Mieriņa studied at the Bulduri Horticultural School. S ...
said during a meeting with Lithuanian Prime Minister
Gintautas Paluckas
Gintautas Paluckas (; born 19 August 1979) is a Lithuanian politician who has served as the 18th prime minister of Lithuania since December 2024. He was previously Deputy Mayor of Vilnius from 2015 to 2019, led the Lithuanian Social Democratic P ...
that Ukraine must take part in the peace negotiations and that "Europe’s security is inseparable from Ukraine’s security. The stronger, more united, and more resilient we are, the better we can provide for our own security". The meeting also addressed the Baltic states'recent disconnection from the BRELL energy grid.
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
with several international leaders to create a "
coalition of the willing
A ''coalition of the willing'' is a temporary international partnership created for the purpose of achieving a particular objective, usually of military or political nature.
Origin
The term was coined in the early 1970s by MIT professor Linco ...
" to support Ukraine in negotiations and to put Ukraine in a stronger position for negotiations. The London summit also hoped to craft a peace deal for Ukraine and to present it to the United States, with Starmer stating that the US was "not an unreliable ally" despite recent hostilities between the
US government
The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States.
The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, execut ...
and Ukraine.
On 11 March, representatives of the US and Ukraine met in
Jeddah
Jeddah ( ), alternatively transliterated as Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; , ), is a List of governorates of Saudi Arabia, governorate and the largest city in Mecca Province, Saudi Arabia, and the country's second largest city after Riyadh, located ...
to discuss peace negotiations, with the US restoring aid and intelligence sharing it had previously cut off to Ukraine.
On 23 and 24 March, representatives of the US met with representatives of Ukraine and Russia separately to negotiate peace in Ukraine through shuttle diplomacy. The talks with Ukraine on the 23rd failed to secure a 30-day ceasefire as Trump had been hoping, however, Putin did agree to stop Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The talks with Russia on the 24th attempted to resume a 2022 grain deal intended to allow Ukraine to continue exporting grain that had been previously pulled out of by Russia in 2023, with both sides agreeing separately to stop the use of force in the Black Sea after certain measures were met. Neither talk mentioned territorial gains or losses after the resolution of the war. Due to the vastly differing visions for peace between Ukraine and Russia, not much was achieved at the summits, although Witkoff did say he expected "some real progress".
On 7 April, leaders of several European nations met in Brussels, stating that although Putin has claimed that Russia wants peace, he has not shown any inclination to negotiate. German Defence Minister
Boris Pistorius
Boris Ludwig Pistorius (; born 14 March 1960) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who has been serving as Federal Minister of Defence in the governments of successive Chancellors Olaf Scholz and Fri ...
stated that "peace in Ukraine appears to be out of reach in the immediate future" due to Russia's ongoing aggression. US General Keith Kellogg had said that Ukraine could be partitioned in a peace deal and that in order to end the war, Ukraine would have to concede to Russian territorial demands, leading to significant tension during the summit. US Defense Secretary
Pete Hegseth
Peter Brian Hegseth (born June 6, 1980) is an American author, former television presenter, and former Army National Guard officer who has served as the 29th United States secretary of defense since 2025.
Hegseth studied politics at Princeton ...
was notably not present at the meeting, choosing instead to attend virtually.
Also on 7 April, Witkoff met with Putin in St. Petersburg, with the talks having been described as "productive" by Russian CEO and special envoy
Kirill Dmitriev
Kirill Alexandrovich Dmitriev (; born 12 April 1975) is the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), an at least $10 billion sovereign wealth fund created by the Russian government to co-invest in the Russian economy.
Dmitriev was born ...
. The meeting focused on peace in Ukraine, with Peskov saying that the "process of normalising relations is ongoing".
See also
*
Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
There have been several rounds of Peace process, peace talks to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine since it began in February 2022. Russia's president Vladimir Putin seeks recognition of all Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, occupied lan ...