OMM Newsroom
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said upcoming US-mediated trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi will focus on principles to be approved at the conclusion of negotiations on a settlement to the Russia-Ukraine war, Anadolu Agency reported.
“There is a shared understanding that the negotiations are focused on agreeing upon the principles that will be endorsed at the conclusion of talks on a comprehensive settlement,” Lavrov said on Monday at a joint news conference in Moscow after talks with Peruvian Foreign Minister Carlos Espa.
Lavrov said the inclusion of Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov in Moscow’s delegation, alongside Mikhail Galuzin, was “entirely natural”, given Ryabkov’s focus on North Atlantic affairs and arms control, among other issues.
He said he had heard US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks about the upcoming negotiations. Lavrov said security issues concerning Russia, Ukraine and Europe as a whole were first on the agenda, adding: “We certainly welcome such an approach.” He said Ukraine had also come up during his talks with Espa.
Russian, Ukrainian and US representatives are scheduled to begin a new round of trilateral peace negotiations in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
The countries last held US-mediated peace talks earlier this year. The first two of three rounds took place in Abu Dhabi on Jan. 23-24 and Feb. 4-5, while the third was held in Geneva on Feb. 17-18.
Rubio told reporters on Sunday, before leaving for Paris to attend a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting, that post-war security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe had been among the key issues repeatedly raised in negotiations. He said he hoped “some progress can be made” on the matter in Abu Dhabi.
Lavrov said Russia had briefed Espa on Moscow’s assessments of the latest developments in Ukraine and on the front line.
He also said Russia and Peru had agreed to step up the work of their intergovernmental commissions on scientific, technical and economic cooperation, as well as on preventing and managing natural disasters and emergencies.
“Today, we agreed to develop new mechanisms, including those for relations between our banking institutions,” Lavrov said. He added that Russian economic operators had a strong interest in working with Peruvian partners on mutually beneficial investment projects.
