U.S. seeks to reset tense relations with Russia

The Trump administration is trying to reset Washington's tense relations with Moscow and move the Ukraine conflict toward an end in the highestprofile meeting between the two nations in years, which has unsettled America's allies in Europe.

- Michael R. Gordon

U.S. officials have cast Tuesday's outreach to Moscow as a bold effort to draw Russia away from China, mend ties with a nuclear-armed adversary and halt a war that has already led to more than a million casualties.

President Trump has raised expectations that relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin will be restored.

Even before Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio left for the talks here, Trump mused that his administration's diplomacy might lead to a summit meeting between himself and Putin in Saudi Arabia in the "not too distant future." But the talks here have been seen in Europe as another indication that decades of Western foreign policy is undergoing a tectonic shift.

Trans-Atlantic ties, already battered by a scathing speech by Vice President JD Vance that accused European leaders of ignoring the will of their voters, have been strained further as allies have confronted the fact that the Riyadh meeting will take place without their participation or that of Ukraine.

Russia is represented by Yuri Ushakov, a close adviser to Putin who served as the Russian ambassador in Washington, and Sergei Lavrov, who has been the Russian foreign minister for more than 20 years.

Russia has telegraphed that its objectives include rolling back punishing U.S. economic sanctions and expanding diplomatic ties while holding on to its gains in Ukraine. Before leaving for Riyadh, Lavrov said there could be "no thought" of making territorial concessions to Ukraine and would be no need for European nations to assume a role in future negotiations over the Ukraine conflict.