After the first foreign ministerial meeting on February 18, the world continues to look forward to the summit between the two Russian and American leaders with the hope that it will open a real breakthrough for the conflict in Ukraine.
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| President Donald Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, 2019. (Source: New York Times) |
How the three-year-old conflict between Russia and Ukraine will end and whether the much-anticipated summit will open a new phase of cooperation between the two “giants” Russia and the US. This largely depends on the results of the recent meeting between the Russian and US delegations in Riyadh.
From commitment to action
The new US President Donald Trump once “shocked” the world when he said he would end the Russia-Ukraine conflict within 24 hours. However, the 47th White House owner of the United States has not been able to do that. However, what the world must acknowledge now is that Mr. Donald Trump has been promoting the possibility of ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible and through peaceful negotiations.
Since officially returning to the White House on January 20, on February 12, just over 20 days, Mr. Trump had his first phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The call was assessed as “substantive and effective” in order to end the conflict in Ukraine.
Unlike his predecessor Joe Biden, Mr. Trump chose to end the conflict in Ukraine through direct negotiations with Russian leader Putin, instead of Ukrainian President Zelensky. Six days after the first phone call, Mr. Trump sent a US delegation to Saudi Arabia to negotiate with the Russian delegation on February 18. The "lightning-fast" process above shows that Mr. Donald Trump is extremely "eager" and very serious in implementing his promises, even though it is not as declared during the election campaign.
The talks between Russia and the United States at the level of foreign ministers ended on a positive note. The two sides issued a statement agreeing to promote efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine, agree to restore the normal functioning of the two countries ' diplomatic missions, and pave the way for a summit between the two leaders.
Commenting on the meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Russia was “ready to engage in a serious process”. On the same day (February 18), President Donald Trump also gave a positive assessment, saying that he was much more confident that an agreement could be reached to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Russian delegation representative said that the negotiations were very serious, the questions had been answered. Russia will soon initiate a "process to resolve the Ukraine issue". President Putin also left open the possibility of direct negotiations with Ukraine if Moscow's conditions are met. According to Reuters , the US side has made many "concessions" to Russia when it announced that the West needs to consider lifting sanctions on Russia to reach a peace agreement, while emphasizing that the US has interests in developing economic cooperation with Russia when the war ends.
Reaction and outlook
Kiev made a new move immediately after the meeting. Speaking while visiting Türkiye on February 18, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he would postpone his visit to Saudi Arabia on February 19, saying he did not want to “legitimize” the US-Russia meeting in Riyadh.
According to Reuters, before the meeting, Europe tried to prevent President Donald Trump from "selling out" Ukraine, something that was extremely fragile and difficult to do. When the meeting took place, European leaders held an emergency meeting in Paris, France. The meeting between EU leaders lasted 3 hours and ended in deep divisions over the idea of deploying peacekeeping forces to Ukraine proposed by Ukrainian President Zelensky.
But in Riyadh, the initial results of the meeting showed that both the US and Russia had basically found common ground in the agreement, including the four core principles of the dialogue. This was a smooth, cautious start, demonstrating a decisive attitude and action, mutual trust and some concessions from the two countries' senior leaders.
Many observers believe that the first talks in Saudi Arabia do not seem to be simply about finding a solution to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, or promoting bilateral cooperation; but in fact, behind that, there may be a "bargain" between Moscow and Washington in shaping a new world order.
For Ukraine and Europe, both have felt a rather deep and harsh “price” in this great game between the two superpowers. Both Ukraine and Europe, with one side directly involved in the conflict, and the other being the inseparable remnant of the war, have received the same outcome when the US ignored them, did not consult them, and worse, did not directly participate in the recent negotiations. The fate of Ukraine and Europe now depends largely on the “bargaining” between the two leaders of Russia and the US.
Source: https://baoquocte.vn/trien-vong-sau-cuoc-gap-nga-my-o-riyadh-304901.html
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