US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would not attend talks with Russia on Friday and said he does not expect a breakthrough in the negotiations over the war in Ukraine until Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet “face to face”, APA reports citing CNN.
“We don’t have high expectations of what will happen tomorrow,” Rubio said in a press gaggle in Antalya, Turkey, but said he hoped to be proven wrong.
Rubio said he would meet Friday with the Ukrainian foreign minister and a Ukrainian delegation and “someone from our team will be involved in the Russia talks.”
“They sent a more lower-level group over here. I hope that those talks will be between Ukraine and Russia, with our Turkish counterparts in the room, along with someone from our team or members of our team at the appropriate level,” he said.
“I was going to be here anyways, obviously,” for a NATO meeting, Rubio noted, “but we came because we were told that there might be a direct engagement between the Russians and the Ukrainians.”
“That was originally the plan. You all heard the same thing. That was not to be the case. Or if it is, it’s not at the levels we had hoped it would be at. I hope I’m wrong,” he said.
“I don’t think we’re going to have a breakthrough here until the president (Trump) and President Putin interact directly on this topic,” Rubio added, reflecting comments made by Trump.
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