A historic summit is now on the cards for Trump and Putin. Can Trump succeed against the nefarious deeper forces of U.S. imperialism, which surely do not want peace with Russia or the world?
Diplomacy is the art of making politics work, and this week, we certainly saw an edifying example of that when senior U.S. and Russian representatives met in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
The meeting was convened only five days after the breakthrough phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. As noted in our editorial last week, Trump took the crucial first step toward ending the three-year conflict in Ukraine - a proxy war between the U.S.-led NATO military bloc and Russia, which was threatening to spiral into a catastrophic nuclear war.
So, meeting in Saudi Arabia on the American side were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and President Trump's special envoy Steven Witkoff. Witkoff had gone to Moscow in previous weeks and was well-received. He seems to have brought a new and positive dynamism to the American side.
Russia was represented by its seasoned Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as Yury Ushakov, who is an international affairs aide to President Putin, and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia's Direct Investment Fund. The latter's inclusion portended that the agenda was much bigger than achieving a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine and indicated an ambitious reset in the geopolitical and geoeconomic relations between Washington and Moscow.
The discussions lasted for four and a half hours. Both sides later and separately expressed mutual satisfaction with the talks as constructive, wide-ranging, and detailed.
Thus, the high-level meeting is a promising start to a long overdue process of engagement to not only bring about a peaceful end to the violence in Ukraine but to restore a normal and productive relationship between the world's two biggest nuclear powers.
It should be noted that this was the first official meeting between the U.S. and Russia in more than three years. That void in communications was deplorable and was largely due to the irrational, ideological hostility from the American side.
Trump, to his immense credit, has broken through the frozen relationship, delivering on his election campaign promise to re-engage with Russia to end the conflict in Ukraine and restore normal bilateral relations.
For his part, Putin has consistently said he is willing to engage in diplomacy with a respectful American counterpart.
Russia had offered a diplomatic way to avoid conflict back in December 2021, but that offer was rejected out of hand by the Biden administration and European NATO allies, as eloquently pointed out by Roger Waters in testimony to the UN Security Council this week.
The same can be said for the Minsk Accords (tenth anniversary this week), the Istanbul agreement (March 2022), the INF Treaty (Trump unilaterally tore that up), the ABM Treaty (Bush Jr ditched in 2003), and the longer betrayal of post-Cold War detente (under Bush Sr and Clinton), and so on.
A lot of trust must, therefore, be restored because of the incorrigible history of American bad faith and treachery in its dealings with Russia and the Soviet Union.
A historic summit is now on the cards for Trump and Putin, although no date or location has been finalized.
In the meantime, the U.S. and Russian sides are to appoint envoys to deal with a wide range of issues in agreeing on a sustainable peace settlement.
Foreign Minister Lavrov spoke favorably about the Riyadh encounter, saying that both sides not only listened but also understood each other.
That is a key point. For too long, the American side has not listened to nor understood Russia's national security concerns. In particular, Russia's repeated concern over the relentless and aggressive expansion of NATO toward its borders.
Russia has made its terms crystal clear on what the end of the conflict in Ukraine entails. Among the terms, there can be no membership of NATO for Ukraine, and there must be a comprehensive security treaty for Europe.
The considered and respectful response of the American negotiators this week indicates that the Trump administration is genuine about resolving the conflict with Russia and understands the deep historical background. In an editorial on January 31, we expressed doubt about Trump's ability to do that. To his credit, however, he is proving our reservation to have been misplaced, at least so far.
It's too early to get into the detailed terms of an agreement and how they can be implemented. At this stage, the essential achievement is the demonstration of diplomacy and politics working.
A major part of the discussions in Riyadh involved restoring normal ambassadorial missions and diplomatic communications. That realm of normal functioning in inter-governmental communications was sabotaged under the Biden and Obama administrations over the past decade due to spurious claims made against Russia (the Russian election interference hoax, for example). All those obstacles have to be removed for diplomacy to proceed and succeed. At least, the American side is now realizing - and tacitly admitting - how destructive its policies had been.
It was significant too that Steven Witkoff - a career businessman - and the Russian economics chief Kirill Dmitriev were participants in the Riyadh discussions. Both sides talked about economic cooperation between the United States and Russia. That necessarily means the U.S. side revoking its illegitimate sanctions on Russia, including barriers to international banking.
Trump and Putin are the central interlocutors. For his part, Trump has shown the basic decency to respect Putin as an equal and to bring the war in Ukraine to an end. Trump also wants to halt the wider geopolitical hostility toward Russia. The envoys he has appointed seem capable of implementing his aims.
For Putin's part, he has a depth of historical and intellectual understanding to ensure that the terms of the peace will be honorable and viable, not just with regard to Russia and Ukraine but on what the United States needs to do in order to re-engage with Russia and the rest of the world as a law-abiding power and not as an imperialist rogue state as it has been for decades.
To that end, the puppet regime in Kiev and the NATO vassals of Europe are irrelevant.
Trump has rightfully shown contempt for the Kiev regime and the European lackeys. It was entirely appropriate that these non-entities were not involved at this early stage of peace diplomacy. Ukraine needs to elect a legitimate president, and at some later stage, the Europeans can be consulted about lifting their stupid sanctions on Russia.
Next week, the British and French leaders are invited to Washington to hear more about Trump's peace diplomacy.
Russia has categorically ruled out any European NATO troops being deployed in Ukraine under the guise of peacekeepers. Trump needs to tell the European minions not to have any illusions about their importance and certainly to back off on any military adventures. Russophobes like the EU's Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas and NATO's Dutch courage clown Mark Rutte should also be ignored. Their contributions are wholly counterproductive and beneath contempt.
If the direct and earnest talks this week in Saudi Arabia are sustained, then it bodes well for the U.S. and Russian sides to stay engaged for eventually achieving a grand bargain on Ukraine and for world peace. The crucial paradigm shift has come about because of a fundamental, positive change in attitude on the American side for showing respect toward Russia. Respect and listening are two paramount ingredients in diplomacy that have long been absent in American politicians.
President Trump has surprisingly delivered - so far. But can he succeed against the nefarious deeper forces of U.S. imperialism, which surely do not want peace with Russia or the world?