BREAKING NEWS: Rubio, Waltz, & Witkoff Speak To Reporters After Talks With Russians In Saudi Arabia

I'm not we're joined down by the US delegation that wrapped up their meetings with the Russians are you walking away with this with any agreements or any follow on conversations well I would start by saying we've agreed on four principles that I think are important the first is that we are going to work we're going to appoint our teams respectively to work very quickly to reestablish the U functionality of our respective missions in Washington and in Moscow for us to be able to continue to move down this road we need to have diplomatic facilities that

are operating and functioning normally the second point is that we're going to appoint a high level team from our end to help negotiate and walk work through the end of the conflict in Ukraine in a way that's enduring and acceptable to all the parties engaged the third point is to begin to work at a high level as well uh to begin to discuss and think about and examine both the geopolitical and economic cooperation that could result from an end to the conflict in Ukraine obviously we'd have to see that conflict come to a successful and

enduring end in order for that to be possible and the last thing we we we agreed to is that while our teams are going to be working on all of this the four of us who were here today the the five of us that were here today we're are going to remain engaged in this process to make sure that it's moving along in a productive way what does an enduring successful end look like did you present any proposals to the Russians today well there are some the some underlying principles uh this needs to be a

permanent end the war uh and not uh a a temporary end as we've seen in the past uh we know uh just the Practical reality uh is that there is going to be some discussion of territory uh and there's going to be discussion of security guarantees uh those are just fundamental Basics uh that will that will underguard and underly any type of discussion um but I think the the most important part is the president has stated his desire his determination to end this war to end the killing that is going on the death and destruction

that is happening as this War uh you know goes on and on uh month after month after month in The Killing Fields of Eastern and Southern Ukraine is unacceptable it is not in the interest of either country it's not in the interest of the world and certainly not in the interest of United States and Europe uh so all of those things will drive uh the negotiations going forward and as you can see uh the president uh president Trump is determined to move very quickly uh we just had uh a head of state phone call the

first in years uh and here we are less than a week later uh at the highest level of the US and Russian government and we expect to continue to uh drive that pace uh to to not only end the war but then to unlock uh what could be uh very uh uh productive and stabilizing relationships going forward you mentioned territor it acceptable to the US for Russia to retain any territory that is annexed since the beginning of the war in February 2022 well I think those are things that uh those those are to be discussed

uh and those are uh things that will start and do the tough work uh ahead but the important thing is that we've started that process uh and what the president did not find accept was an endless war uh in Europe uh that was literally turning into has turned into a meat grinder uh of of people on on both sides so the if you just think about just in a few months president Trump has shifted the entire Global conversation from not if the war is going to end but just how it's going to end and only

President Trump can do that uh and in the Oval Office uh less than a week ago both President Putin and president zalinski both said to him Only You president Trump could drive this war to a conclusion what concessions you expect well again we're not going to pre-negotiate or an end to this conflict these are the kinds of things that have to happen through hard and difficult diplomacy and closed rooms over a period of time what's important to understand is two things 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 that 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 but we have to understand that it's been three and a half years since there's been any sort of regularized contact between the United States and Russia and in some cases between any

of the participants in this Con conflict in Russia so the goal of today's meeting was to follow up on the phone call the president had a week ago and begin to establish those lines of communication the work remains today is the first step of a long and difficult Journey but an important one and president Trump is committed to bringing an end to this conflict and as he said when he campaigned for president and he wants it to be end in a way that's fair he wants it to end in a way that's sustainable and enduring

not that leads to another conflict in two to three years that's not going to be easy to achieve but he's the only one in the world that can begin that process Donald Trump is the only leader in the world that could initiate that process and today was the first step in in in that process is s believe going to be involved in any of this normalizing or trying to More Level set the relationship between the US and Russia did the Russians bring up sanctions Rel in the meeting today well sanctions are all the result of

this conflict there are sanctions that were imposed as a result of this conflict and so I would say to you that um in order to bring an end to any conflict there has to be concessions made by all sides we're not going to predetermine what those are uh we're we're not certainly not going to negotiate this today or in a press conference for that matter but um and and there are other parties that have sanctions the European Union is going to have to be at the table at some point because they have sanctions as well

that have been imposed so um but I guess the point here is the goal is and we agreed on what the goal is the goal is to bring an end to this conflict in a way that's fair enduring sustainable and acceptable to all parties involved what that looks like well that's what this what the ongoing engagement is going to be all about the ukrainians and the Europeans have suggested they feel very sidelined about how the process has played out so far how do you intend to address their concerns and will they be incorporated in future

meetings in a multilateral way well the comment I would have on that is that for three and a half years while this conflict has raged or three years while it's raged no one else has been able to bring something together like what we saw today because Donald Trump is the only leader in the world that can so no one is being sidelined here but president Trump is in a position that he campaigned on to initiate a process that could bring about an end to this conflict and from that could emerge some very positive things for

the United States for Europe for Ukraine for the world but first it begins by the end of this conflict and so the only thing president Trump's trying to do is bring about peace it's what he campaigned on it's something the world should be thanking president Trump for doing he was a he's been able to achieve what for three two and a half three years no one else has been able to achieve which which is to bring to begin this process a serious process obviously a lot of work remains before we have a result but president

Trump's the only one that can do it I look it's it's common sense if you're you're going to bring both sides together you have to talk to both sides um and we'll continue to remind everyone literally uh within minutes of President Trump hanging up with President Putin he called uh and spoke with President zalinski so shuttle diplomacy has happened throughout history it's happened all over the world uh we are absolutely talking to both sides the Secretary of State just met with President zalinsky days ago along with the vice president seven cabinet members in Europe at

the same time really showing the importance of uh of engaging our allies president Trump spoke with uh president macron uh just yesterday prime minister starmer is coming to Washington next week so I think we the the facts will continue to push back on this notion that uh our allies haven't been consulted they're being and uh they are being consulted literally almost on a daily basis and we'll continue to do so did you set a date for the two presid to meet at this meeting we expect that meeting uh we did not uh we did not

set that date um but the two presidents uh talked about meeting and expect to meet can you take us a little bit in the room today what was the interaction like how would you characterize the discussions it was positive upbeat constructive everybody there to uh to get to the right outcome solution based we we discussed it afterwards we couldn't have imagined a better result after this uh after this session it was very very solid will you be traveling to Russia again Mr I'm not sure but but we'll we'll make that determination in the next couple

of weeks the European The Cure starm of the UK prime minister has said the US needs to back any sort of European solution to the war is this something that you are willing to commit to well I think that's something that we'll continue to discuss uh we have certainly again as a first principle uh a a a European Le security guarantee we have uh the president many of us uh as members of uh prior members of Congress uh ourselves have called for the Europeans to continue to contribute uh to our common defense to continue to

share uh the burden uh of NATO defense um will continue to point out that while things have improved starting with President Trump's first term the fact that a third of our NATO allies still do not contribute the minimum of 2% of their GDP to defense a decade after uh that we all collectively made that agreement uh isn't acceptable we have the NATO Summit coming up this June and we would expect uh with the type of of conflict the type of warfare and destruction we've seen in Europe sadly uh the last several years that we have

100% at the minimum and in fact are exceeding that so you look this is a this is a common effort this isn't just about what the United States is going to continue to contribute uh and what we are going to continue to ask of the American taxpayer uh we all have to make those tough decisions we all have to contribute to our common defense and we expect that uh to this to be a two-way street for our European allies and the fact that both the United Kingdom France and others are talking about contributing uh more

forcefully to Ukraine's security we think is a good thing did you walk away from this meeting convinced the Russians want peace you said it might take some time to be convinced of that seeing it now I mean I don't view diplomacy that way I think diplomacy ultimately is based on uh actions it's based on commitments that are kept so I think they I came away today convinced that they are willing to begin to engage in a serious process to determine how and how quickly and through what mechanism can an end be brought to this war

whether we can ultimately reach that outcome will obviously depend on every site in this conflict's willingness to to agree to certain things so um I think it's important to have this meeting because we haven't really had much engagement with the Russians for almost three years and uh it sets the table for future conversations how that turns out will be up to the parties and their willingness not just to make commitments but to live by them uh that'll be tested in the weeks to come but uh but I can tell you again as I reiterate president

Trump has made it he made it very clear during the campaign and he thought this conflict needed to end he's the only leader in the world that could have started uh a process that we saw here today and this process is going to continue and um when you talk about an enduring and sustainable end of the conflict it means one that's acceptable to everyone involved in it and that obviously includes Ukraine but also our partners in Europe and of course the Russian side as well sorry I didn't mean to to jump in there but I

just wanted to also take a moment I think on behalf of all of us and the president uh to thank our Partners in Saudi Arabia to thank our hosts for bringing this together and particularly the Crown Prince Muhammad bin salon and his team uh we are uh moving quickly which means uh they uh moved very quickly to to be such Grace gracious hosts and and we certainly are all appreciative absolutely last question will the Saudi St on a more active mediation go as these talks well that's a decision for the kingdom to make but I

can tell you that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is playing an indispensable role in making today possible not just hosting us but bringing the parties together to have these conversations um I think it's uh something we're very grateful for something we're very grateful for the partnership that we have with them on a host of issues and this being one of them where we uh we thank them for doing it and um and we hope they that they will I think they've offered and I believe that they will continue to be helpful in any way they

can thank you app thank couple I'll be extremely brief um so what is the next step now uh the high Lev team you mentioned is number two or number three yeah so let me walk you through the the the next step is multi-track the F the first next step is working through our respective teams at the Diplomatic side just to ensure that our diplomatic missions can function there's been a series of reciprocal actions taken over the last 10 years that have really diminished our ability to operate in Moscow as an example and they would argue

their ability to operate in Washington we're going to need to have V diplomatic missions that are able to function normally in order to be able to continue these conduits the second is a highlevel team including those who are experts on these topics the technical side uh to begin to engage with their side on parameters of what an end to this conflict would look like and on that front obviously there's going to be engagement and consultation with Ukraine with our partners in Europe and others but ultimately the the Russian side will be indispensable to this effort

and to so that process will begin and then the third is together with those other two is beginning to engage in identifying the extraordinary opportunities that exists should this conflict come to a uh acceptable end the credible opportunities that exists to partner with the Russians geopolitically on issues of common interest and frankly economically on issues that hopefully will be good for the world and will also improve our relations in the long term between these two important countries so all three of those efforts will be happening in conjunction with one another obviously the Diplomatic one is

one we think we hope to move pretty quickly on because this involves uh the treatment of our respective missions the second one will be difficult which is the the question of Ukraine and the end of that conflict but I think that's essential in order for the third piece to even be possible which is our ability to work together on other geopolitical matters of common interest and of course some pretty unique potentially historic economic Partnerships as well the key that unlocks the door for those opportunities however is the end to this conflict in terms of the

like when when does the high level team has there been any date there's no date set but we uh president Trump is uh as you've seen over the last four weeks um not patient in terms of getting action he drives he drives hard he wants to get things done he's been wanting to do this and he's moving very quickly to fulfill the promises he made to the American people when they elected him as our president okay and then in terms of number one in the restoration of the Diplomatic missions you'll remember that you know the

first big tit of the Tit for taxs was after the street Paul poisoning and the US under one of your predecessors Mr Tillerson expelled uh a lot of Russian diplomats to which they responded the the Consulate in St Petersburg closed down got closed down by the Russians you guys closed down the Consulate in Seattle several others are those going to reopen are the well that's what we're going to be talking about and ultim Ely you know again I'm not going to negotiate or work on that in public that that's what these channels will be about

but ultimately what the goal we need to have is we have to have some normaly in our missions and their ability to function and the in the main embassies even and in the main EMB main regardless of the Consol I mean if our if the if our diplomatic channels are broken it's going to be very difficult to consistently engage on a host of topics including some unrelated irritants that could derail the broader talks on Ukraine so there has to be some improvement in the way our missions um are able to work and in the environment

that and space that they're given to operate in so that's something we want to move on quickly and it's important to set the table for the other two things that we want to do but um I think the key really in all of this is ultimately going to be whether uh an agreement can be reached with all parties involved on a acceptable resolution to the conflict in Ukraine because if that happens not only will the world be a better place but I think there will have to be some pretty unique opportunities to to work with

them on areas of bilateral geopolitical interests and some very unique economic opportunities but we have to get the Ukraine situation resolved first in a way that's acceptable to everyone okay my last one um so but does that mean if you get the the staffs back to operational normal operational level of staff at the embassies that you consider the scall case of the Crimea annexation to be be closed they're no longer issues because I think you know you're mentioned that K starmer is going to be in Washington next week I can imagine that the the Brits

won't be uh particularly uh yeah again I'm not I'm not yeah I'm not going to negotiate or talk through every element of the disruptions that exist or have existed in our diplomatic relations and the mechanics of it suffice it to say that President Trump has pledged and and intends to keep his promise to do everything he can to bring an end to this conflict we cannot do that unless we have at least some normaly in the way our diplomatic missions operate in Moscow and in Washington DC and so we need to work to improve that

and we're going to work with them to see what's possible within that context does that include removing lavro from taking resending sanctions that are have been imposed we're just not at that level of conversation yet but certainly that's uh there'll be a number of topics that'll have to be discussed along the way they haven't we that we haven't even begun that process today was just an agreement to begin a process to talk about those things all right thank you thank you thank you