we are going to appoint our teams to work quickly to reestablish the functionality of our respective missions in washington and moscow, for us to be able to continue to move down this road we need to have diplomatic facilities that are operating and functioning normally. the second point is that we are going to 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 an accessible -- successful and enduring and. the last thing that we agreed to is that while our teams will be working on all of this, the four of us today, five of us here today are going to remain engaged in this 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 this war, end 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 southern 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, in a few months, president trump has shifted the entire global

conversation from, not 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 war 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 involved 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 and difficult journey but an important one. president trump is committed to bring an end to this conflict, as he said when he campaigned for president. he wants it to end it in a way that is fair, sustainable, and enduring, not one that leads to another conflict in two or three years. that is not going to be easy to achieve. 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.

sanctions impose as a 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, europe, 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 serious process. obviously a lot of work remains 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 showing the importance of engaging our allies. president trump 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 two 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 there 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. >> will you be traveling again to russia this year? 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. this isn't just about what the united states will continue to contribute. what we are going to continue to ask of the american taxpayer. we all have to make those tough decisions, i'll have to contribute to our common defense

and we expect this to be a two-way street for our european allies, and the fact that both the united kingdom, france, and others are talking about contributing more forcefully to ukraine's security, we think is a good thing. >> [no audio] >> i don't you diplomacy that way. diplomacy is based on actions, commitments cap. so i think, i came away convinced that they are willing to begin to engage in a serious process to determine how and how quickly and through what mechanism can end and be brought to the war. whether we can ultimately reach out outcome will obviously depend on all sides in the conflict willingness to agree on certain things. i think it's important to have the meeting because we had not had much engagement with the russians for almost three years. it sets the table for future

conversations. how that turns out will be up to the parties and their willingness not just to make commitments but to live by then. that will be tested in the years to come. but i can tell you as i reiterate, president trump made it clear during the campaign, he thought this conflict needed to end. he is the only leader in the world that could have started the process that we saw here today and this process will continue. when you talk about an enduring and sustainable into the conflict, it means one that exits up -- acceptable to everyone involved. that obviously involves ukraine and our partners in europe and the russian side as well. >> i didn't mean to jump in but i also want to take a moment on behalf of all of us and the president to think our partners and saudi arabia, to thank our hosts for bringing this together , particularly the crown prince mohammed bin salman and his team. we are moving quickly which means they moved very quickly to be such gracious hosts, and we

are certainly all appreciative. >> [inaudible] >> that's a decision for the kingdom to make. i can tell you the kingdom of saudi arabia is playing a indispensable role in making this happen, not just hosting us but bring the parties together to have these conversations. i think it is something we are very grateful for, grateful for the partnership that we have with them on a host of issues, this being one of them. we thank them for doing it and we hope, i think they have offered, and i believe they will continue to be helpful in any way they can. >> [inaudible] what is the next step now? >> the next step is multi track. the first next step is working through our respective teams at the diplomatic side just to

ensure our diplomatic missions can function. there's been a series of reciprocal actions taken over the last 10 years that have really diminished our ability to operate in moscow, for example, and their ability to operate in washington. we need vibrant missions to function normally to continue these conversations. the second is i high level team including those experts on these topics optic teco side to begin to engage with their side on parameters of what an end to this conflict would look like. on that front obviously there will be engagement and consultation with ukraine, our partners in europe and others, but ultimately the russian side will be indefensible to this effort. and then the third is together with those other two, beginning to engage in identifying the extraordinary opportunities that exist should this conflict come to an acceptable end, the incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the russians geopolitically on

issues of common interest and frankly economically on issues that will hopefully good -- be good for the world and improve our relations in the long term for these two important countries. all three of those efforts will be happening in conjunction with one another. the diplomatic one is one we hope to move quickly on because this involves the treatment of our respective missions. the second one will be difficult, the question of ukraine and the end of that conflict. but i think that is essential in order for the third piece to even be possible which is our ability to work together on other geopolitical matters of common interest, and of course some pretty unique, potentially historic economic partnerships as well. the key that unlocks the door for those opportunities, however, is the end to this conflict. >> has there been -- >> there is no date set the president trump, as you've seen over the last four weeks, not patient in terms of getting action. he drives hard, wants to get things done.

he has been wanting to do this and is moving quickly to fulfill the promises he made to the american people when they elected him as our president. >> in terms of the restoration of missions, you'll remember that the first tit in the tit for tat was [inaudible] the u.s., under one of your predecessors was expelled, a lot of russian diplomat's, to which they responded, st. petersburg was closed down by the russians, you close down the consulate in seattle and others. are those going to reopen? >> that is what we will talk about. ultimately i will not negotiate and work on that in public but that is what these channels are about. the goal we need to have is we need to have some normalcy in our missions, our ability to function. >> and in the maimed embassies

even. >> if our diplomatic channels are broken, it will be very difficult to consistently engage on a host of topics including some unrelated irritants that could derail the broader talks on ukraine. so there has to be some improvement in the way our missions are able to work, the environment, space the argument to operate in. that is something we want to move on quickly. it's important to set the table for the other two things we want to do. i think the key really in all of this is ultimately going to be whether an agreement can be reached with all parties involved on an acceptable resolution to the conflict in ukraine, because if that happens not only will the world be a better place but i think there will be some pretty unique opportunities to work with them on areas of bilateral geopolitical interest and some very unique economic opportunities, but we have to get the ukraine situation resolved first in a way that is acceptable to everyone.

>> does that mean if you get the status back to operational, normal operational levels, staff at the embassies, you consider the crimea annexation to be closed, no longer issues? you mention keir starmer will be in washington next week. i can't imagine the brits will be particularly -- >> i'm not going to negotiate or talk through every element of the disruption that exist or have existed in our diplomatic relations, mechanics of it. suffice it to say, president trump has pledged, intends to keep his promise to do everything he can to bring an end to the conflict. we cannot do that unless we have some normalcy in the way our diplomatic missions operate in moscow in washington, d.c., so we need to work with them to see what's possible in that context. >> rescinding sanctions? >> we are not at that level of

conversations yet. there will be a number of topics that will have to be discussed along the way. we haven't even begun the process. today was just an agreement to beginning the process to talk about those things. >> thank you.