The United States and Russia moved toward a head-spinning reset of their relationship on Tuesday, agreeing to work together on ending the Ukraine war, financial investment and re-establishing normal relations. The meeting between senior officials from both countries was a striking display of bonhomie after three years of American efforts to isolate Moscow for its 2022 invasion.
After more than four hours of talks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that both sides had agreed to work on a peace settlement for Ukraine as well as to explore “the incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians,” both geopolitically and economically.
“We weren’t just listening to each other, but we heard each other,” Sergey V. Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said. “I have reason to believe that the American side started to better understand our positions.”
The meeting, the most extensive negotiations in more than three years between the two global powers, was the latest swerve by the Trump administration in abandoning Western efforts to punish Russia for starting Europe’s most destructive war in generations. It signaled Mr. Trump’s intention to roll back the Biden administration’s approach toward Moscow, which focused on sanctions, isolation and sending weapons to Ukraine that helped kill tens of thousands of Russian soldiers.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, American officials did not dwell on Russia’s violation of international law in attacking Ukraine, its alleged war crimes or the three years of devastation that Russian shelling and bombardment had wrought in parts of Ukraine. Instead, they repeatedly lauded Mr. Trump for trying to stop the fighting by talking to Russia in a way that his predecessor did not.
“For three years,” Mr. Rubio said, “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 that can.”