- Russia agrees to trilateral talks with Ukraine, US.
- US envoy Witkoff met Putin for peace discussions.
- China expected to play significant role in resolution.
St. Petersburg/New Delhi: The Russian administration has agreed to hold a trilateral meeting with Ukraine and the United States to end the ongoing conflict. According to news agency Reuters, Kremlin hinted China could play a big role and added the officials in Beijing are already working on it. The major development came after United States special envoy Steve Witkoff engaged in high-stakes talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in St. Petersburg. The aim of the meeting was to advance proposals to end the war in Ukraine and establish a pathway towards broader negotiations.
As reported by CNN, the diplomatic outreach came on the heels of Witkoff's Tuesday summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Norway, following which video footage captured the US envoy confirming that reviewing the outcomes of that "productive" Oslo summit remained central to the agenda.
"I think there's some degree of momentum, and I hope that this today can be another step forward in the peace process and discussing how we resolve the Ukrainian conflict," the Trump administration envoy stated.
November 10 likely be the day for trilateral talks
Moscow’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said that Putin said "in principle" peace talks will continue after November 10, following a meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg.
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The Kremlin said the new 3-way peace talks, which would be at a technical level, could take place in Abu Dhabi and would be focused on how to guarantee the security of Ukraine and Russia once the war ended. They could begin sometime on or after November 10, it said. The last US-mediated peace talks took place in February before the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran. The latest development came days after it was speculated India could also play a significant role in peace talks. As of now, it was not clear whether New Delhi would have any role in the upcoming negotiations.
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The Kremlin was less upbeat, however, about the outcome of talks Witkoff had held a day earlier in Oslo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the leaders of Finland and Norway, and European and NATO representatives. Witkoff told Putin the talks had been characterised by "some degree of momentum" and a US official said Ukraine had brought new ideas and proposals. "These nuances, so to speak, do not entirely satisfy us," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the St Petersburg meeting - which lasted nearly three hours.
Possible meeting between Trump, Putin and Xi Jinping
Ukraine and Russia remain far apart when it comes to the terms of any possible peace deal, though Trump has recently intensified pressure on Ukraine to strike some kind of a deal. He said on Tuesday it was time for Ukraine to end the war or face "a very bad thing."
Putin also used Wednesday's talks to offer to help Trump deal with Iran, saying Russia had a decades-long relationship with Tehran which it has repeatedly offered to leverage to address US concerns about Iran's nuclear programme. Putin told Witkoff it was possible and necessary to get a deal with Tehran, the Kremlin said.
Russia could also supply vast quantities of fertiliser to the United States to help US farmers, the Russian president told Witkoff. A potential meeting in China next month with Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping was also discussed. The Kremlin said Beijing was already preparing what it said would be the first meeting of its kind in history.
(With inputs from Reuters)