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U.S.-Russia peace talks are promising because, finally, the Americans are listening
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from Strategic Culture:
Diplomacy is the art of making politics work, and this week, we certainly saw an edifying example of that when senior U.S. and Russian representatives met in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
The meeting was convened only five days after the breakthrough phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. As noted in our editorial last week, Trump took the crucial first step toward ending the three-year conflict in Ukraine – a proxy war between the U.S.-led NATO military bloc and Russia, which was threatening to spiral into a catastrophic nuclear war.
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So, meeting in Saudi Arabia on the American side were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and President Trump’s special envoy Steven Witkoff. Witkoff had gone to Moscow in previous weeks and was well-received. He seems to have brought a new and positive dynamism to the American side.
Russia was represented by its seasoned Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as Yury Ushakov, who is an international affairs aide to President Putin, and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund. The latter’s inclusion portended that the agenda was much bigger than achieving a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine and indicated an ambitious reset in the geopolitical and geoeconomic relations between Washington and Moscow.
The discussions lasted for four and a half hours. Both sides later and separately expressed mutual satisfaction with the talks as constructive, wide-ranging, and detailed.
Thus, the high-level meeting is a promising start to a long overdue process of engagement to not only bring about a peaceful end to the violence in Ukraine but to restore a normal and productive relationship between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers.
It should be noted that this was the first official meeting between the U.S. and Russia in more than three years. That void in communications was deplorable and was largely due to the irrational, ideological hostility from the American side.
Trump, to his immense credit, has broken through the frozen relationship, delivering on his election campaign promise to re-engage with Russia to end the conflict in Ukraine and restore normal bilateral relations.
For his part, Putin has consistently said he is willing to engage in diplomacy with a respectful American counterpart.
Russia had offered a diplomatic way to avoid conflict back in December 2021, but that offer was rejected out of hand by the Biden administration and European NATO allies, as eloquently pointed out by Roger Waters in testimony to the UN Security Council this week.
The same can be said for the Minsk Accords (tenth anniversary this week), the Istanbul agreement (March 2022), the INF Treaty (Trump unilaterally tore that up), the ABM Treaty (Bush Jr ditched in 2003), and the longer betrayal of post-Cold War detente (under Bush Sr and Clinton), and so on.
A lot of trust must, therefore, be restored because of the incorrigible history of American bad faith and treachery in its dealings with Russia and the Soviet Union.
A historic summit is now on the cards for Trump and Putin, although no date or location has been finalized.
In the meantime, the U.S. and Russian sides are to appoint envoys to deal with a wide range of issues in agreeing on a sustainable peace settlement.
Foreign Minister Lavrov spoke favorably about the Riyadh encounter, saying that both sides not only listened but also understood each other.
That is a key point. For too long, the American side has not listened to nor understood Russia’s national security concerns. In particular, Russia’s repeated concern over the relentless and aggressive expansion of NATO toward its borders.
Russia has made its terms crystal clear on what the end of the conflict in Ukraine entails. Among the terms, there can be no membership of NATO for Ukraine, and there must be a comprehensive security treaty for Europe.
The considered and respectful response of the American negotiators this week indicates that the Trump administration is genuine about resolving the conflict with Russia and understands the deep historical background. In an editorial on January 31, we expressed doubt about Trump’s ability to do that. To his credit, however, he is proving our reservation to have been misplaced, at least so far.
It’s too early to get into the detailed terms of an agreement and how they can be implemented. At this stage, the essential achievement is the demonstration of diplomacy and politics working.
A major part of the discussions in Riyadh involved restoring normal ambassadorial missions and diplomatic communications. That realm of normal functioning in inter-governmental communications was sabotaged under the Biden and Obama administrations over the past decade due to spurious claims made against Russia (the Russian election interference hoax, for example). All those obstacles have to be removed for diplomacy to proceed and succeed. At least, the American side is now realizing – and tacitly admitting – how destructive its policies had been.
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February 24, 2025 at 05:00AM
February 24, 2025 at 05:01AM
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