Russian-US Representative Meets In Saudi Arabia, Zakharova: West Nervous

JAKARTA - Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova assessed that Western countries were nervous when representatives of Russia and the United States met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

"We saw a nervous reaction, if we don't panic from the West against Russian-US contacts," he said, launching TASS on February 18.

"Russian-American contacts at high and highest levels caused a real hystery among the Euro-Atlantic Russophobes," Zakharova said.

The spokesman pointed to the "unprecedented phenomenon in international relations: coercion of self-consistency in the negotiation process."

"We are talking about some British-EU (EU) friends from Zelensky's (Volodymyr) criminal regime, which demonstrates the inability to go beyond their own primitive stance to generate hybrid war with our country until Ukraine last," Zakharova concluded.

Russian and US delegations started talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Tuesday at around 00.00 a.m.

Russia was represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Aide to President Yury Ushakov, and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev.

Meanwhile, the United States was represented by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.

The talks meant to negotiate the settlement of the Russia-Ukraine war were held at one of the royal family's palaces, Al Diriyah, at the Albasateen complex lasted about 4.5 hours.

After about two and a half hours, both sides rested for 15 minutes, and after an extra hour passed, the participants went to lunch.

On Monday, European leaders held a meeting in Paris, France, saying it was willing to provide security guarantees and warn of the risk of a ceasefire without a peace agreement.

President Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez were among the leaders present at the meeting.

Also taking part were Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa.