Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that the mineral agreement, which President Donald Trump had pursued, is “not the primary issue” for the upcoming meeting with the Ukrainian delegation in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
“I wouldn’t make any assumptions about whether we’ll have a minerals deal tomorrow,” Rubio said during a flight to Saudi Arabia. “While it is an important subject, it’s not the central focus of the meeting.”
He added, “The minerals deal remains under discussion, but it’s not the main topic for this conversation. We can consider Tuesday’s meeting successful, even without securing this agreement. It’s a deal the president is keen to see through, but it doesn’t necessarily need to happen tomorrow.”
The Ukrainian delegation will include key figures such as Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential office, Andrii Sybiha, foreign minister, Pavlo Palisa, a Ukrainian military colonel and advisor to President Zelensky, and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who has been involved in talks with Russia since the 2022 invasion and survived a poisoning attempt after a peace meeting in March of that year.
Rubio is set to meet the delegation in Jeddah around noon local time on Tuesday.
“The main purpose of this meeting is to clarify their intentions and their public commitment to finding a path toward peace,” Rubio explained. “I need to ensure that Kyiv is ready to make difficult decisions, such as potentially conceding territory occupied by Russia, to end this prolonged conflict.” He emphasized that diplomacy, not military force, offers the only way forward, acknowledging the difficulty of pushing Russian forces back to pre-2014 borders.
Rubio also stated that understanding the positions of both sides will provide insight into the challenges ahead, saying, “We need to understand how far apart they are to gauge the extent of the divide and the difficulty of bridging it. I’m hoping this meeting will lead to positive developments.”
Steve Witkoff, the special envoy to the Middle East, also noted that the previous administration made significant strides in narrowing differences with Moscow to bring it to the negotiating table, although he refrained from offering specifics.
Witkoff mentioned that relations with Ukraine had improved after President Zelensky sent a letter to Trump apologizing for a recent diplomatic exchange that escalated tensions, particularly after he refused to sign the mineral deal.
Though Rubio acknowledged that a mineral deal may not be finalized this week, he hopes that the Jeddah meeting will help resume aid to Ukraine. However, he did not specify whether this would include the defensive assistance or intelligence sharing that had been suspended after the Oval Office confrontation.
“I hope we can resolve the pause in aid,” Rubio said. “Tomorrow’s meeting could be crucial to that.”
Rubio also warned that Russia would face consequences, including more sanctions, if it fails to engage in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
“The U.S. has the means to impose costs on Russia, but we hope it doesn’t come to that,” Rubio said. “Our hope is that both sides recognize this conflict cannot be resolved through military means alone.”
On Friday, former President Trump warned Russia of “large-scale sanctions, tariffs, and banking penalties” until a ceasefire and peace agreement are reached.
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