Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that he hoped that a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine could take place in the “days” if Russian leaders agreed and that he planned to obtain diplomats from the group of 7 allied countries to focus on the end of the war at a meeting this week in Canada.
“Here is what we would like that the world looks like in a few days: neither of the two parties get out of each other-not rockets, not missiles, no bullets, nothing, not artillery,” he told journalists during a refueling stop in Ireland when he flies from Saudi Arabia to Canada. “The shot stops, the fights stop and the discussions begin.”
Mr. Rubio also minimized any idea that he would encounter the hostility of the American allies because of President Trump’s recent rates. And he said he expected to have cordial talks with Canadian officials, despite Mr. Trump’s threat to annex Canada and make the 51st state. The president also imposed coercive rates in Canada.
“This is not what we are going to discuss the G7, and that’s not what we are going to discuss in our trip here,” he said. “They are the host nation, and I mean, we have a lot of other things we work together.”
“This is not a meeting on how we are going to take over Canada,” he added.
Mr. Rubio and Michael Waltz, National Security Advisor to the White House, met on Tuesday with Ukrainian officials from Djeddah, Saudi Arabia, to determine how to start a negotiation process with Russia to end the war. Hostilities began in 2014 when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, and then launched a large -scale invasion in 2022.
After the meeting on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said they had accepted an American proposal for a 30-day provisional cease-fire. After reprimanding Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, at the White House, Trump retained American weapons and helping Ukrainian intelligence to try to force them to negotiate. US officials said after Jeddah’s meeting that the aid had restarted.
Rubio said that US officials planned to “contact” Russian officials on Wednesday to discuss the proposed ceasefire.
“If their answer is no, it would be very unhappy, and that would clearly indicate their intentions,” he added.
Rubio said that when he, Mr. Waltz and Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s special envoy in the Middle East, met Russian officials in Saudi Arabia last month, the Russians seemed open to the idea of regulation in war. “They expressed a will in the right circumstances, which they did not define, to put an end to this conflict,” he said.
Mr. Rubio said that one of his main objectives at the group of the 7 was the release of other countries – Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, all supporters of Ukraine – to have a united front to encourage peace talks. The meeting begins with a reception in Quebec on Wednesday evening.
He said that a “perfect declaration” to publish from the meeting “would be that the United States has done a good thing for the world by advancing this process, and now we are all looking forward to the Russian answer and strongly exhorts them to consider putting an end to all hostilities, so that people stop dying, so bullets will stop flying and therefore a process can start to find permanent peace.”
Ukrainian officials wish to ensure that several problems are treated in all talks, he said, including exchanges of prisoners of war, the release of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia and humanitarian assistance.
When he was asked what was the American position at the request for security guarantees from Ukraine to help dissuade future Russian assaults, Mr. Rubio simply said that deterrence would be part of the peace talks.
“There is no way to have lasting peace without the deterrent being being part of it,” he said, adding that any trade of commercial minerals between the United States and Ukraine would help enrich Ukraine, but was not dissuasive against Russian aggression.
Trump insisted that the United States and Ukraine sign such an agreement, suggesting that the investment of American companies in Ukraine would help avoid hostile Russia.
Rubio said European promises to ensure security in Ukraine would also be part of peace talks. He said he was not clear when these nations would be more involved in negotiations, although European countries insisted that they would be central actors in a regulation, if we had to perform.
“I imagine that in any negotiation, if we will get there with the Russians, they will lift the European sanctions imposed on them,” said Rubio. “So I think that the question of European sanctions will be on the table, not to mention what is happening with frozen assets and others.”
The foreign ministers gathered in Quebec expect to discuss the war, but Mr. Trump’s hostility to American alliances, his alignment with Russia and his unpredictable pricing actions have created a multitude of questions that diplomats intend to raise.
Rubio said Trump imposed prices not to punish other nations but “to develop an internal capacity” for manufacturing, especially in the defense industries.
Canadian officials, including the entering Prime Minister, Mark Carney, are taking reciprocal measures on the prices and fighting the other threats of Mr. Trump. Rubio said Mr. Trump’s statements on annexation were based on economic and security problems.
“What he said is that they should become the 51st state from an economic point of view,” said Rubio. “He says that if they became the 51st state, we would not have to worry that the border and the fentanyl are found because now we would be able to manage this. He argued that it is their interest in doing so. Obviously, Canadians do not agree, apparently. »»
