Today's Edition
CAIRO (dpa)
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is open to hosting a planned meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, the kingdom's Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
Trump and Putin spoke by phone on Wednesday and agreed to begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine "immediately."
In a post on social media, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said it commended the phone call between Trump and Putin.
"The Kingdom expresses its welcome to hosting the summit in Saudi Arabia, and reaffirms its ongoing efforts to achieve lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine," the ministry posted on “X.”
There are no concrete details yet on how the negotiations would look and when they might officially begin.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow on Thursday that the heads of state had not yet made a firm decision, nor could he say when the meeting would be held.
"It could be weeks or months or several months," he told Russian state news agency TASS.
Saudi Arabia has so far endeavoured to maintain a neutral stance in the conflict and has offered to act as a mediator several times.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly rejected talks about peace in Ukraine without the participation of Kiev.
"We must develop a joint strategy with the US and Europe to bring about a just peace and sit all at the negotiation table together," Zelensky wrote on “X” platform on Friday.
Ukraine has been defending itself against a full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022.
