US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz have refuted the claims that Europe and Ukraine are being sidelined from the negotiations process.
Speaking after the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, they noted that these were just the first steps toward ending the Russo-Ukraine war.
“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,” Rubio said. “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.”
When asked about Europe and Ukraine being sidelined from the process, Waltz replied that they’re being consulted with ‘daily.’
“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,” he said.
Waltz also added that “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.”
He also said that there’s no date for the meeting between Putin and Trump.
