Sec. Marco Rubio Provides An Update On The Peace Talks Between Russia And Ukraine

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During a press conference at NATO headquarters on Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked about the current status of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00The second question here, Missy from Washington Post.

00:03Mr. Secretary, I'd like to ask you about the Russia-Ukraine negotiations.

00:07Can you give us the, tell us about the American assessment of the conditions that Russia put

00:12forward following the, regarding the Black Sea ceasefire talks?

00:17And also, the British and French foreign minister said this morning that Putin

00:22was dragging his feet. Do you agree with that?

00:25Maybe, he might be. We don't know yet. We're going to find out fairly soon. I mean, look,

00:28we are, here's what the president wanted to do. He wants to end this war, and he wanted to test

00:33it very early in his administration. Is it possible to end this war on terms that are

00:37acceptable, obviously, to both sides? Because you can't end a war unless both sides agree.

00:41And that's what we're in the process of finding out. We will know soon enough, in a matter of

00:44weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not. I hope they are. It would

00:48be good for the world if that war ended. But obviously, we have to test that proposition.

00:53So we're working through that process. We had a visitor that, Mr. Carrillo was here this week,

00:57had a chance to sit down with him. He met with others. He'll take some messages back.

01:01And the message is, the United States needs to know whether you're serious or not about peace.

01:05Ultimately, Putin will have to make that decision. The Russian Federation will have to make that

01:08decision. I think the Ukrainians have shown a willingness to enter, for example, into a

01:13complete ceasefire to create space for negotiation. At some point here, fairly soon, not six months

01:20from now, the Russians and Putin will have to make a decision about whether they're serious

01:24about peace or not. And I hope they are serious. It would be good for the world if that war ended.

01:28What is your assessment of the Russian conditions that were put forward? And also,

01:31Dmitry has said, following his talks with Mr. Whitcock yesterday, that the U.S. and

01:35Russia might resume direct flights as maybe a confidence-building measure. Do you support that?

01:41I haven't heard anything about direct flights. I can tell you, but I don't know who's going to fly

01:44on it because all these people are sanctioned. But I would just tell you that the thing I would

01:49point to you is this. We're going to wait and see. The Russians know our position in terms of

01:54wanting to end the war, and we will know from their answers very soon whether they are serious

01:58about proceeding with real peace or whether this is a delay tactic. It's a delay tactic. The

02:03President's not interested in that. If this is dragging things out, Donald, President Trump's

02:07not going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations about negotiations. We will know

02:12soon enough whether or not Russia's serious about peace. If they are, that'll be great. Then we can

02:16move towards peace. If they're not, then we'll have to reevaluate where we stand and what we

02:20do moving forward about it. But we'll be in no different a position than we are today or we were

02:25when he took office. He wanted to know early in his administration, is peace possible? We're testing

02:30to see if the Russians are interested in peace. Their actions, not their words, their actions will

02:34determine whether they're serious or not, and we intend to find that out sooner rather than later.

02:38And what about their conditions? Which conditions?

02:41They put forward additional conditions after you had the Black Sea ceasefire.

02:44Yeah, so again, I mean, this is part of the back and forth of these sorts of things. I've had phone

02:49calls with foreign leaders, and then I read the readout, and it's like, oh, we said, no, you never,

02:52they came, they said something to me they never said. I guess that's part of the game in this

02:57place or whatever. But look, I don't, bottom line is, to me at the end of the day, what's going to

03:01matter here is whether we're going to move towards peace or not. If peace is real, we will know soon

03:05enough. If they're not interested in peace, we will know soon enough, and we'll make decisions

03:09on the basis, I hope they are real. There are some promising signs, there are some troubling signs.

03:14It's not going to be easy. No one ever said this would be easy. But we're going to find out sooner

03:18rather than later. And let's just say, I'm hopeful, I remain hopeful, I need to be hopeful

03:23that peace is possible, and that the Russians are serious about peace. We want them to be serious

03:27about peace. And hopefully they are, but we'll know sooner rather than later.

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