The United States and Russia moved toward a head-spinning reset of their relationship on Tuesday, agreeing to work together on ending the Ukraine war, financial investment and re-establishing normal relations. The meeting between senior officials from both countries was a striking display of bonhomie after three years of American efforts to isolate Moscow for its 2022 invasion.
After more than four hours of talks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that both sides had agreed to work on a peace settlement for Ukraine as well as to explore “the incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians,” both geopolitically and economically.
“We weren’t just listening to each other, but we heard each other,” Sergey V. Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said. “I have reason to believe that the American side started to better understand our positions.”
The meeting, the most extensive negotiations in more than three years between the two global powers, was the latest swerve by the Trump administration in abandoning Western efforts to punish Russia for starting Europe’s most destructive war in generations. It signaled Mr. Trump’s intention to roll back the Biden administration’s approach toward Moscow, which focused on sanctions, isolation and sending weapons to Ukraine that helped kill tens of thousands of Russian soldiers.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, American officials did not dwell on Russia’s violation of international law in attacking Ukraine, its alleged war crimes or the three years of devastation that Russian shelling and bombardment had wrought in parts of Ukraine. Instead, they repeatedly lauded Mr. Trump for trying to stop the fighting by talking to Russia in a way that his predecessor did not.
“For three years,” Mr. Rubio said, “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.”
The talks showed that rather than keeping the pressure on Moscow, Mr. Trump was eager to work with Russia to end the war — an approach that would most likely fulfill many of the demands of its president, Vladimir V. Putin — and that he was prepared to cast aside the worries of American allies in Europe.
The meeting came nearly a decade after Russia interfered in the 2016 election to Mr. Trump’s benefit, but then saw Mr. Trump adopt few Russia-friendly policies during his first presidency.
Tuesday’s meeting in Saudi Arabia was the latest sign that Mr. Trump’s second term could be different. In Europe and Ukraine, apprehensions are likely to deepen that the United States and Russia could try to strike their own peace deal, sidelining Kyiv and American allies.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine reacted angrily to Tuesday’s meeting, saying he was postponing his own planned visit to Saudi Arabia — he had planned to arrive on Wednesday — to protest that Ukraine had not been invited to Tuesday’s talks.
“We were not invited to this Russian-American meeting in Saudi Arabia,” Mr. Zelensky said while on a visit to Turkey. “It was a surprise for us — I think for many others as well.”
It was important, he said that negotiations do not happen “behind the backs of the key subjects.” Any decisions, he added, “cannot be imposed” on Ukraine.
The meeting came less than a week after Mr. Trump’s lengthy phone call with Mr. Putin and took place at a palace in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, whose crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been seeking to elevate his country’s role on the world stage.
Michael Waltz, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, and Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy and a longtime friend of Mr. Trump, joined Mr. Rubio for the meeting. Mr. Witkoff called the meeting “positive, upbeat, constructive.”
The Russian delegation included Yuri Ushakov, Mr. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund. Speaking to Russian television, Mr. Dmitriev described a jovial atmosphere — “there were a lot of jokes” and a “very tasty” lunch — while Mr. Ushakov said that both sides also discussed preparations for a meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin. He offered no details on when a summit might take place.
Russia appeared to be using Tuesday’s talks to cater to Mr. Trump’s interest in profits and natural resources, arguing that American oil companies and others stood to gain hundreds of billions of dollars by again doing business in Russia.
Mr. Dmitriev, who worked with Mr. Witkoff to broker the release last week of an American schoolteacher jailed in Russia, said he would seek to restart economic cooperation with the United States to “rebuild communication, rebuild trust, rebuild success.”
“U.S. oil majors have had very successful business in Russia,” Mr. Dmitriev said in a brief interview on Tuesday before the talks began, offering an example of how the countries could rebuild business ties. “We believe at some point they will be coming back, because why would they forgo these opportunities that Russia gave them to have access to Russian natural resources?”
Russian commentators have expressed the hope that talks with the Trump administration and a peace deal in Ukraine could pave the way for the United States to lift the severe sanctions imposed by the Biden administration against Moscow.
Leading Western oil companies, including Exxon Mobil, joined many other businesses in pulling out of Russia three years ago amid outrage over Mr. Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Dmitriev said he would present the American delegation with an estimate showing that American companies lost $300 billion by leaving Russia.
Speaking to reporters after Tuesday’s meeting, Mr. Rubio described a three-step plan for what the United States and Russia planned to do next.
First, he said, both countries would negotiate how to remove restrictions placed on each other’s embassies in Moscow and Washington, which are operating with skeleton staffs after years of tit-for-tat expulsions.
In addition, he said, the United States would engage with Russia about “parameters of what an end” to the Ukraine war would look like.
“There’s going to be engagement and consultation with Ukraine, with our partners in Europe and others,” Mr. Rubio said. “But ultimately, the Russian side will be indispensable to this effort.”
And finally, he said, Russia and the United States would explore new partnerships, both in geopolitics and in business. He described them as “the extraordinary opportunities that exist should this conflict come to an acceptable end.”
Tuesday’s discussions were the first time after Mr. Putin’s invasion in early 2022 that broad delegations of senior American and Russian officials are known to have met in person.
In Europe and Ukraine, the news of Tuesday’s talks had been met with confusion and concern. While Mr. Rubio characterized the talks as preliminary, there was widespread criticism in Europe that Mr. Trump’s approach to Russia had not been coordinated with allies of the United States.
But for Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed, hosting the talks has offered a major opportunity to solidify his status as a global leader with influence that extends beyond the Middle East.
The Saudis, in a Foreign Ministry statement, said they were welcoming the Russians and Americans “as part of the kingdom’s efforts to enhance security and peace in the world.”
Like other countries in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has avoided taking sides in the Ukraine war.
It has sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine while cultivating close ties with Russia. When a Ukraine peace conference was held in Switzerland last June that excluded Russia, Saudi Arabia and the neighboring United Arab Emirates refused to sign the final joint statement.
Andrew E. Kramer and Maria Varenikova contributed reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine.
