RUSSIA SAYS US CONFIRMED WILLINGNESS TO NORMALISE RELATIONS WITH MOSCOW IN RIYADH MEETING

Wed 12 March 2025:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that US representatives at the 18 February meeting in Riyadh expressed their desire to normalise relations with Russia, Anadolu has reported. Speaking to US bloggers in Moscow, Lavrov said that the American delegation also stressed the need to prevent conflicts from escalating into confrontation, especially military conflict.

Dismissing claims that Russia is distancing itself from the East while improving US ties, Lavrov called them an “illusion,” linking changes in Russian-US relations to the new administration in Washington, describing its course as a “return to normality.”

Lavrov contrasted US Republicans and Democrats, arguing that the latter aggressively impose the “LGBT agenda” which, in his view, pushed many voters toward Donald Trump. He noted that even Trump was unprepared for his first term in office but is now “fully ready.”

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At the Riyadh meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other officials emphasised that Trump’s foreign policy would prioritise American national interests “absolutely and without discussion.” However, they acknowledged that other countries, including Russia, have their own interests, said Lavrov.

The US and Russia will never have fully aligned interests, but when they do, responsible politicians should turn them into practical, mutually beneficial projects, he added. “Russia shares this approach.”

Asked about the situation in Palestine, Lavrov said that he had seen reports suggesting that Israel plans to annex the West Bank by concentrating Palestinians into designated municipalities rather than expelling them. He stressed that “municipalities” were not “camps,” hinting at unsettling parallels with Nazi Germany, where Jews were confined to specific areas and barred from living elsewhere, and now Israel’s plans for Palestinians are similar to that experience.

Lavrov said that while Palestine’s 1967 borders differ significantly from the original 1948 borders set under the UN Partition Plan, they remain far better than the current situation for Palestinians.

Regarding the Iran nuclear deal, he expressed Russia’s concern that the US seeks to condition its renewal on Iran proving it does not support groups in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and beyond, an expectation that the Russian minister described as unrealistic.

He acknowledged challenges in relations with China, attributing them to Western sanctions, as companies seek to avoid potential repercussions. Restrictive measures have also delayed several promising logistics and infrastructure projects in Siberia, but he insisted that Moscow and Beijing are in no rush.

The foreign minister added that Moscow is ready to consider Trump’s proposal for a trilateral meeting between the US, China and Russia to discuss nuclear weapons and security. “We would be open to any format which is based on mutual respect, equality, and no prejudged solutions. If our Chinese friends would be interested it would be their decision.”

Lavrov reaffirmed Russia’s position that NATO’s eastward expansion led to its “special military operation” in Ukraine. He said that if Germany and France had upheld their responsibilities as guarantors under the Minsk agreement, Russia would not have initiated the fighting. The minister criticised former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande, who, he said, admitted that they never intended to implement the agreement but used it to buy time for more weapons.

Expressing scepticism about the US withdrawing from NATO, Lavrov noted that Trump had never suggested such a possibility, but only called for others to contribute their fair share to America’s defence. The minister also argued that the EU is no longer just a peaceful economic project, as it now seeks its own military and has aligned itself closely with NATO.

He accused French President Emmanuel Macron of lying twice regarding Russia’s pressure on Ukraine, and questioned the logic of accepting peacekeepers from countries that have declared Russia to be an enemy.

Lavrov pointed out that the head of German intelligence had recently said that the war in Ukraine could not end before 2029, and asked: “Maybe they want to wait out Donald Trump?”

He emphasised that if Ukraine had honoured the Minsk agreement, it would still have the 1991 borders, “minus Crimea and parts of Donbas.”

“Every time they cheat, they lose,” said the minister. “And the process continues.”

Ukraine expressed readiness on Tuesday to accept a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in its war with Russia, which has been ongoing since February 2022. The proposal, which still needs approval by Moscow, was announced in a joint statement after talks between US and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia.

-MEMO

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