(AFP) – President Donald Trump has invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to attend the G20 summit of world leaders in Miami in December, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday. The move comes as Washington struggles to secure a deal to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Trump insisting that he is working with both sides to stop the war.
“In order to solve problems, you have to meet with the people that you disagree with or the people that you might have some issues with,” Rubio told reporters in New York on Wednesday. “So we’ve invited President Putin to the G20,” he added. “We think it’s an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president but with other world leaders. We hope that’s an invitation he’ll accept,” Rubio said.
The top US diplomat spoke shortly after his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a hotel in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Their meeting also comes ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s scheduled address to the United Nations. Zelensky is expected to appeal again for better air defenses against the barrage of Russian drones and missiles.
But on Wednesday, Lavrov told the UN Security Council that Moscow would not halt its war of more than four years against Ukraine. “We are not going to have a pause in our special military operation,” Lavrov said, accusing Europe of wanting to use a halt to the fighting to “pump the Kyiv regime with weapons.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga, speaking after Lavrov, told the Security Council that his Russian counterpart’s comment “said it all.” He later added: “Russia’s war against Europe is no longer hybrid. Instead of safeguarding peace, Russia is spreading war. That is everyone’s problem.”
In a joint declaration issued on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, 51 countries including France, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Canada reaffirmed their support for Ukraine. “We are particularly concerned by the attacks in the Black Sea,” said EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who read out the statement alongside French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and Sybiga. The statement added that Russia is trying to choke off Ukrainian grain exports, calling for efforts to safeguard commercial shipping and critical infrastructure.
Rubio also encouraged for Moscow and Kyiv to reach an energy ceasefire. While this does not end the war, it could create a platform for broader agreement, he noted. Rubio said both sides have expressed interest in a limited ceasefire involving energy.
Zelensky has told journalists that Ukraine is ready to halt strikes on Russian energy sites if Moscow agrees to do likewise, after Trump called on him to stop hitting diesel refineries. After meeting with Trump on Tuesday, Zelensky said that Washington and Kyiv want the war with Russia to end “before winter.”
While the United States and Russian presidents have spoken by telephone on various occasions, the last time they met was in 2025. On a separate note about the conflict in the Middle East, Rubio warned Wednesday that the last thing Israel or the wider region needed was for the West Bank to become a new crisis. “The last thing Israel needs or the region needs is an additional crisis or an additional friction point; we understand that that’s the case and that’s what’s happening,” Rubio said.
© 2024 AFP
