UN and Other Countries to Be Involved in Russia-US Talks

Negotiations between Russia and the United States will continue, and the United Nations (UN) and other countries will be involved, said Grigory Karasin, head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs and one of the participants in the Russian delegation. According to website rbc.ru, Grigory Karasin says: “We will continue to do so, involving also the international community, first of all the United Nations and individual countries. In general, the impression left is of such a constructive dialogue, which is needed and necessary. The Americans are also interested in it”. Grigory Karasin added that the dialogue in Riyadh turned out to be ‘intense, not easy, but very useful for us and for the Americans’. ‘Many problems were discussed. Of course, not everything was solved, not everything was agreed upon, but the fact that such a conversation took place, I think it is very timely, given the arrival of the new administration and new politicians who came to the meeting of expert groups,’ the senator said. The talks between the Russian and US delegations lasted more than 12 hours. At the end of the meeting, the sides discussed the content of a Joint Final Statement, but it was never presented. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would talk about ‘some aspects of these contacts’ in a TV interview on 25 March. Reuters, citing a source in the White House, reported that the U.S. expects a ‘positive statement’ following the meeting with the Russian side. According to the agency’s source, ‘progress was observed’ during the negotiations in Riyadh. The source did not specify the format or the exact timing of the statement. A day before the meeting between the Russian and American delegations, negotiations were held between representatives of Washington and Kyiv in Riyadh. According to Suspilne, citing a source, the Ukrainian delegation remained in Riyadh after the talks to wait for a new meeting with U.S. representatives.