Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed plans for a summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
The summit, which is expected to be held in Budapest, was announced after Putin phoned Trump last week ahead of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the White House on Friday.
US Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott said that Rubio “emphasized the importance of upcoming engagements as an opportunity for Moscow and Washington to collaborate on advancing a durable resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war,” as per AFP.
The Kremlin described Rubio and Lavrov’s conversation as “constructive,” according to Reuters. In a statement, it said that the two diplomats had explored “possible concrete steps to implement the understandings reached” during Putin and Trump’s Oct. 16 phone call.
Trump and Putin last met in Alaska on Aug. 15, where Trump gave the Russian dictator a red-carpet welcome. During a subsequent visit to the White House by Zelensky and many of Ukraine’s European allies, Trump took a phone call from Putin in which the Russian president assured him of his willingness to participate in a trilateral summit with Zelensky.
However, as several weeks – and deadlines set for Putin by Trump – passed, analysts and diplomats began to suspect the Russian president of playing for time.
Zelensky has affirmed on many occasions that he is ready to meet with Putin to end the war. Neither the White House nor the Kremlin mentioned his involvement in the planned Budapest summit after Lavrov and Rubio’s phone call on Friday.
Prior to Putin’s Oct. 16 phone call to Trump, the US president appeared to be losing patience with his Russian counterpart. On Friday, however, he again expressed a belief that Putin is ready to “get it done” and end the war.