begin dialogues to end the russia-ukraine war. ukrainian officials were included. afterward, secretary you -- rubio, special envoy steven witkoff work together to outline the next steps in negotiations.

>> are you walking away with any agreements? sec. rubio: i would start by saying we have agreed on four principles that are important. first is we are going to appoint our teams to work very quickly to reestablish the functionality of our respective missions in washington and in moscow. for us to be able to continue to move down the road we need to have diplomatic facilities that are operating and functioning normally. the second point is that we will appoint a high-level team from our end to help negotiate and work through the end of the conflict in ukraine in a way that is enduring and acceptable to all the parties engaged. the third point is to begin to work at a high level as well to begin to discuss and think about and examine both the geopolitical and economic

cooperation that could result from an end to the conflict in ukraine. obviously, we have to see that conflict come to a successful and enduring end. in order for that to be possible. the last thing we agreed to, while our teams will be working on this, the four of us here today, the five of us here today , will remain engaged in the process to make sure it is moving along in a productive way. >> [inaudible] >> there are some underlying principles. this needs to be a permanent end to the war and not a temporary end as we have seen in the past. we know just the practical reality is that there is going to be some discussion of territory and there is going to be a discussion of security guarantees. those are just fundamental basics that will undergird,

underlie any type of discussion. i think the most important part is the president has stated his desire, his determination to end the war, and the killing going on, the death and destruction that is happening as the war goes on and on, month after month after month and the killing fields of eastern and central ukraine is unacceptable. it is not in the interest of either country, not in the interest of the world, certainly not in the interest of the united states and europe. all of those things will drive the negotiations going forward. as you can see, the, president trump is determined to move very quickly. we just had a head of state phone call, the first in years. here we are less than a week later at the highest level of the u.s. and russian government, and we expect to continue to drive that pace, to not only end

the war and then unlock what could be a very productive and stabilizing relationship going forward. >> [inaudible] michael: those are to be discussed. those are things that will start and do the tough work ahead, but the important thing is we have started the process. what the president did not find acceptable was an endless war in europe that was literally turning, has turned into a meat grinder of people on both sides. if you just think about come in a few months, president trump has shifted the entire global conversation from the, if the war is going to end, but how it is going to end, and only president trump can do that.

in the oval office, less than a week ago, both president putin and president zelenskyy said to him, only you, president trump, can drive this more to a conclusion. sec. rubio: again, we are not going to pre-negotiate an end to this conflict. these are the things that have to happen between hard diplomacy behind closed doors over time. the only leader in the world who can make this happen, who can even begin to talk about this in a serious way is president trump. he is the only one in the world that can do that right now. the second thing i would say, in order for a conflict to end, everyone in the conflict has to be ok with it, has to be acceptable to it. but we have to understand it's been three and half years since there's been any sort of regularized contact between the united states and russia. in some cases between any of the participants in this conflict and russia. the goal of today's meeting was to follow up on the phone call the president had a week ago and

begin to establish those lines of communication. the work remains. today is a first step in a long journey. president trump is committed to bring an end to this conflict, as he said when he campaign for president. he wanted to end in a way that is fair, sustainable, and enduring, not one that leads to another conflict in two or three years. he is the only one in the world that can begin that process. donald trump is the only leader in the world that can initiate that process. today was the first step in that process. >> [inaudible] involved of any of this normalizing -- sec. rubio: sanctions are the result of this conflict. i would say to you that, in order to bring an end to any conflict, there has to be concessions made by all sides. we will not predetermine what those are. we will certainly not negotiate

this today or in a press conference for that matter. there are other parties that have sanctions. the european union will have to be at a table at some point because they have sanctions, as well, that have been imposed. i guess the point here, the goal is, and we agreed on the goal. the goal is to bring an end to this conflict in a way that is fair, enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all parties involved. what that looks like, that is what the ongoing engagement will be all about. >> europeans feel sidelined about how the process has gone so far. will they be incorporated? sec. rubio: the comment i would have on that is for three and a half years while the conflict has raged, no one else has been able to bring something together like what we saw today, because donald trump is the only leader in the world who can. no one is being sidelined here, but president trump is in a position to what he campaigned

on, to bring an end to this conflict. from that could emerge some very positive things for the united states, ukraine, for the world. first, it begins by the end of this conflict. the only thing president trump is trying to do is bring about peace, something he campaigned on, something the world should be thanking president trump for doing. he has been able to achieve that for two and a half or three years no one else has been able to achieve which is to begin this series process. obviously a lot of work remain before we have a result, but president trump is the only one that can do it. michael: it is common sense, if you are going to bring both sides together, you have to talk to both sides. we will continue to remind everyone, literally, within minutes of president trump hanging up with president putin, he called and spoke with president zelenskyy. so shuttle diplomacy has happened throughout history, has happened throughout the world. we are absolutely talk to both sides. the secretary of state just met

with president zelenskyy days ago along with the vice president, seven cabinet members in europe at the same time, really shown the importance of engaging our allies. president spoke with president macron just yesterday. prime minister starmer is coming to washington next week. the facts will continue to push back on this notion that our allies have not been consulted. they are being consulted, literally, almost on a daily basis, and we will continue to do so. >> did you set a date for the presidents to meet? michael: we did not set that date but the two presidents talked about meeting and expect to meet. >> can you take us in the room today, what was the interaction like, how would you characterize? steve: it was positive, upbeat, constructive.

everyone they are trying to get to the right outcome, solution-based. we discussed afterward, we couldn't imagine a better result after this session. it was very, very solid. >> [inaudible] steve: i am not sure. we will make that determination in the next couple weeks. >> the prime minister has said the u.s. needs to back any sort of european solution to the war. is that something you're open to? michael: that is something we will continue to discuss. again, as our first principle, a european-led security guarantee. many of us, as prior members of congress ourselves, have called for the europeans to continue to contribute to our common defense, to continue to share the burden of nato defense. we will continue to point out that while things have improved,

starting with president trump's first term, the fact that a third of our nato allies still do not contribute a minimum of 2% of their gdp to defense a decade after that we all collectively made that agreement isn't acceptable. we have the nato summit coming up this june. we would expect with the type of conflict, warfare and destruction we have seen in europe, sadly the last couple of years, that we have 100% at the minimum, and are in fact exceeding that. this is a common effort. the are going to continue to ask of the american taxpayer. we all have to make those tough decisions and we expect this to be a two-way street for our european allies and the fact that the united kingdom, france, and others are talking about

contributing more forcefully to ukraine's security we think is a good thing. >> [indiscernible] >> i don't view diplomacy that way. i think diplomacy ultimately is based on actions, it is based on commitments that are capped. i came away today convinced that they are willing to engage in a serious process to determine how and how quickly under what mechanism can and and be brought to this war. whether we can ultimately reach that outcome will obviously depend on every side in this conflict's willingness to agree to certain things. i think it is important to have this meeting because we haven't had much engagement with the russians for almost three years and it sets the table for future conversations. how that turns out will be up to the parties and their willingness to make and live by commitments. that will be tested in the weeks to come. as i reiterate, president trump

made it clear during the campaign he wants this conflict to end. he is the only leader in the world that could have started the process we saw here today and this process is going to continue. when you talk about an enduring and sustainable end to the conflict, it is one that is acceptable to all involved, that includes ukraine, our partners in europe, and the russian side as well. >> i wanted to take a moment on behalf of all of us and the president to thank our partners in saudi arabia to make our hosts for bringing this together and particularly the crown prince and his team. we are moving quickly, which means they moved very quickly to be such gracious hosts. >> [indiscernible] >> that is a decision for the king, but i can tell you the

king of saudi arabia is bringing the parties together and i think it is something we are very grateful for. we thank them for doing it. we think they have offered and we believe they will. >> [indiscernible] >> let me walk you through that. the first next step is working through the diplomatic side to ensure that it can function.

they would argue their ability to operate in washington. we will need to have vibrant diplomatic missions to be able to continue these conduits. the second is a high level team including those who are experts on these topics on the technical side to begin to engage with their side and parameters of what an end to this conflict will look like. there will be engagement and consultation with ukraine, with our partners in europe and others. ultimately, the russian side will be indispensable. so that process will begin. the third is together with those other two is beginning to engage and identifying the extraordinary opportunity that exists should this conflict come to an acceptable end. the opportunities that exist to partner with the russians geopolitically, on issues of common interest, and frankly economically on issues that will be good for the world and hopefully improve our relations in the long-term. all three of those efforts will

be happening in conjunction with one another. we hope to move pretty quickly on the diplomatic efforts. the second will be difficult, which is russia and ukraine and the end of that conflict. i think that is essential for the third piece to be possible, which is our ability to work together on other geopolitical matters of common interest and some pretty unique, potentially historic economic partnerships as well. the key that unlocks the door for those opportunities will be the end to this conflict. >> [indiscernible] >> there is no date set. president trump is not patient in terms of action. he drives and drives hard and wants to get things done. he has been wanting to do this. >> in terms of number one in

terms of restoration, after the poisoning and a lot of russian diplomats were expelled. you guys closed down the consulate. are those going to reopen? >> that is what we are going to talk about. ultimately i'm not going to work on that in public. that is what these channels will be about. we have to have some normalcy in our missions and their ability to function. >> and in the main embassies. >> if our diplomatic channels are broken, it is going to be difficult to engage on a host of

topics including some unrelated areas that could derail the broader topics on ukraine. there has to be some improvement in the way it is able to work. that is something we want to move on quickly and it is important to set the table for the other two things. i think the key is going to be whether an agreement can be reached with all parties involved on an acceptable resolution. there will be some unique opportunities to work with them on bilateral and geopolitical interest and some unique economic opportunities. >> does that mean if you get the staffs back to normal operational level that you

consider those issues to be closed? >> i'm not going to negotiate or talk through every element that have existed in diplomatic relations. suffice it to say president trump has pledged and intends to keep his promise to do everything he can to bring an end to this conflict. we cannot do that unless we have some normalcy in the way our diplomatic operations operate. >> does that include rescinding sanctions? >> we are not at that level of conversation yet. those are topics that will have to be discussed along the way.

today was just an agreement to begin a process to talk about this. >> thank you. [captions copyright national cablsallite corp. 2025] [captioning performed by the naon captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption coenand accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> on capil hill, the u.s. seteavels in at 3:00 p.m. eastern. mississippreblican senator roger wker will deliver the analeading of george washington's 1796 farewell address which rotates betwee the parties. the senate has observed washingto's birthday by reading the addrs ery year since 1896. lawmakers will alsootto confirm the cantor fitzgerald ceo to be the commerce secretary. ter in the week, the senate will consider cash patel to serve as fbi dirto watch live coverage of the house on c-sn,he senate on c-span2 , and all of our congressional coverage is available on our

c-span video app and online at c-span.org. ♪ >> democracy, it isn't just an idea, it is a process, a process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its principles. it is where debates unfold, decisions are made and the nations course is charted. democracy in real-time, this is your government at work, this is c-span, giving you your democracy unftered. >> up next, senator jeanne shaheen, the top senate in of the senate foreign relations committee, joints republican senator thom tillis in a conversation with politico. they talked about the country's ongoing war with russia and u.s. support, the threat of china,

and the trump administration's view on nato. this is just under 20 minutes. >> all right. welcome. i feel very happy. we are grateful that senator shaheen and senator tillis are here for the senate nato observer group, which is also known as the snog, which is fun. i thought we would jump right into it. there's been a lot going on here it week, a lot of tuft outside of -- activity outside of this billing. around ukraine, europe, administration. but president zelenskyy spoke today and will a petitions with the president's enjoy keith kellogg in the brown there's been some mixed messaging from the administration and something that i and some other reporters here have been hearing are some doubts from some e