The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, on Monday arrived in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, the second stop in his Middle East tour, reported Arab News.
Rubio’s visit comes ahead of an expected meeting of senior officials from the US, Russia and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia to prepare for a summit that aims to start negotiations on resolving the Russia-Ukraine war.
Last week, the US President, Donald Trump, and the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, had a phone call, after which Trump announced plans for US and Russian senior officials to meet in Riyadh after both leaders “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” to end the war.
🎥 | #US Secretary of State @SecRubio Upon His Arrival in #Riyadh#AlEkhbariyaEN
pic.twitter.com/wLa6fCI7zU https://t.co/t75iFtg7sy— AlEkhbariya News (@alekhbariyaEN) February 17, 2025
On Saturday, Rubio spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, as a follow-up on Trump-Putin call. The US Secretary of State reaffirmed Trump’s commitment to finding an end to the conflict in Ukraine, according to the US State Department’s readout of the call.
In his first foreign trip to the Middle East since he assumed office, the US Secretary of State visited Israel, then he arrived in Riyadh, where he will meet senior Saudi officials, including the Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan. His next stop will be the UAE.
