News: US and Russian officials will hold a second meeting in Saudi Arabia

A diplomatic source said U.S. and Russian officials will hold a second meeting in Saudi Arabia.

Sources said Monday (February 24) that delegations from the United States and Russia will hold talks in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday (February 25), which will be a "follow-up meeting to last week's talks." Although the officials are at a lower level, it is still a signal of progress."

However, the sources did not disclose the list of U.S. and Russian officials involved in the talks.

Last week, a U.S.-Russian delegation led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held their first talks in Riyadh to discuss details of a possible summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At the end of the meeting last week, Russia and the United States agreed to establish a "consultation mechanism" to resolve disputes and appoint negotiators to negotiate a war between Russia and Ukraine. This is the first such level of talks between the two countries since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022.

The talks follow a phone conversation between Trump and Putin in early February that broke with a longstanding Western strategy of trying to isolate Putin.

Trump also sent shockwaves across Europe by announcing his readiness to restore diplomatic relations with Putin and end the Russia-Ukraine war without the involvement of European countries and Ukraine.