• Source:JND
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Riyadh: The United States and Russia agreed on Tuesday to address "irritants" to the US-Russia relationship and begin working on a path to end Russia's war in Ukraine, the State Department said, making clear the effort was in its early stages. The US and Russia will appoint teams to negotiate ending the Ukraine war, BBC reported, citing the US State Department, following high-level talks in Saudi Arabia.

What happened so far:

  1. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US national security adviser Mike Waltz and US envoy Steve Witkoff met for 4.5 hours with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia as a follow-up to US President Donald Trump's telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week.
  2. They discussed establishing a mechanism to address "irritants to our bilateral relationship" with the goal of normalizing diplomatic relations, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
  3. The two sides also appointed high-level teams to work on ending the Ukraine conflict "as soon as possible in a way that is enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all sides," she said.
  4. The State Department said the meeting was an important step in an incipient process.
  5. "One phone call followed by one meeting is not sufficient to establish enduring peace," Bruce said.

Russia says unacceptable for NATO member troops to be in Ukraine

Lavrov said on Tuesday that NATO membership for Ukraine was unacceptable as was the appearance of NATO member troops - even if they were operating there under a different flag. "We explained to our colleagues today what President (Vladimir) Putin has repeatedly stressed: that the expansion of NATO, the absorption of Ukraine by the North Atlantic alliance, is a direct threat to the interests of the Russian Federation, a direct threat to our sovereignty," Lavrov said.

"We explained today that the appearance of armed forces from the same NATO countries, but under a false flag, under the flag of the European Union or under national flags, does not change anything in this regard. Of course, this is unacceptable to us."

With inputs from agency