Preparations underway for face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin, Russia says

RUSSIA’S DEPUTY FOREIGN minister has said that preparations are underway for a face-to-face meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

It marks a dramatic shift away from the Western isolation of Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

Speaking to Russian state media, Sergei Ryabkov said a possible Putin-Trump summit could involve broad talks on global issues, not just the war in Ukraine.

“The question is about starting to move towards normalising relations between our countries, finding ways to resolve the most acute and potentially very, very dangerous situations, of which there are many, Ukraine among them,” he said.

But he said efforts to organise such a meeting are at an early stage, and that making it happen will require “the most intensive preparatory work”.

Ryabkov added that US and Russian envoys could meet “within the next two weeks”, to pave the way for further talks between senior officials.

Russian and US representatives on Tuesday agreed to start working towards ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties, according to the two countries’ top diplomats, at a high-level meeting in Saudi Arabia that marked an extraordinary about-face in US foreign policy under Trump.

The talks were attended by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, along with other senior Russian and US officials. Lavrov, for his part, hailed the meeting as “very useful”.

No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting, which came as the beleaguered country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops, nearly three years after Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its smaller neighbour.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would not accept any outcome from the talks since Kyiv did not take part, and he postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia scheduled for last Wednesday.

European allies have also expressed concerns that they are being sidelined.

In the last week, Trump has baselessly accused Zelenskyy of starting the war in Ukraine and repeated several Russian narratives about the conflict. He also branded the Ukrainian leader a “dictator” who refuses to hold elections.

Zelenskyy’s five-year term should have, under normal circumstances, run out last year. However, elections were never held as the country remains under martial law. Ukrainian law states that elections cannot be held while the country is under martial law.

Earth minerals deal

Trump wants Ukraine to sign an agreement that would provide the US with access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as compensation for the support given to Ukraine by his predecessor Joe Biden, and as payment for any future aid. 

Ukraine is seeking security guarantees from the US as part of any deal signing away its natural resources and critical minerals. The details of the proposed agreement have not been made public. 

Rare earth elements are a set of 17 elements that are essential to many kinds of consumer technology, including mobile phones, hard drives and electric and hybrid vehicles.

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Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz expressed confidence on Friday that Zelenskyy would eventually accept a deal letting the US access his country’s rare earth minerals.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Waltz said: “Here’s the bottom line. President Zelenskyy is going to sign that deal.”

However, a Ukrainian source has told AFP that Zelenskyy is “not ready” to sign a deal that would give the US preferential access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.

“In the form in which the draft is now, the president is not ready to accept, we are still trying to make changes and add constructiveness,” the source close to the matter said.

There are no American obligations in the agreement regarding guarantees or investments, everything about them is very vague, and they want to extract $500 billion from us.

The source said that Ukraine had offered amendments.

US resolution fails to condemn Russia

Meanwhile, the US has proposed a draft United Nations resolution that stops far short of a competing European-backed statement demanding an immediate withdrawal of all of Moscow’s forces from Ukraine.

Both are timed to the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which falls on Monday, when the UN General Assembly will vote on the non-binding resolutions.

It sets up a clash between the US and Europe as the strength of the transatlantic alliance has been called into question over the Trump administration’s extraordinary turnaround on Russia.

The very short US draft resolution offers mourning for “the tragic loss of life throughout the Russia-Ukraine conflict” and “implores a swift end to the conflict and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia.”

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told UN reporters about the US resolution: “It’s a good move.”

Russia also suggested an amendment, seeking to add the phrase “including by addressing its root causes” so the final line of the US resolution reads, “implores a swift end to the conflict, including by addressing its root causes, and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia.”

By contrast, the draft resolution from the European Union and Ukraine refers to “the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation” and recalls the need to implement all previous assembly resolutions “adopted in response to the aggression against Ukraine”.

It singles out the assembly’s demand that Russia “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders” and its demand to immediately halt all hostilities.

The General Assembly has become the most important UN body dealing with Ukraine because the Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, is paralysed by Russia’s veto power.

There are no vetoes in the General Assembly, but its resolutions are not legally binding  – unlike Security Council actions.

Nonetheless, assembly resolutions are closely watched as a barometer of world opinion.

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With reporting from Press Association and AFP

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