When President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he might soon meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to discuss an end to the nearly three-year war in Ukraine, he named what may have seemed like an unlikely venue for the talks.
“We expect that he’ll come here, and I’ll go there and we’re going to meet also probably in Saudi Arabia the first time,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll meet in Saudi Arabia, see if we can get something done.” Trump cited both his and Putin’s ties with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, as a reason for choosing the Gulf nation for their first meeting. “We know the crown prince, and I think it’d be a very good place to be,” he said. Saudi Arabia has increasingly played the role of mediator in the Russia-Ukraine war.
For MbS mediating the war presents an opportunity to solidify his status as a global leader with influence that extends beyond West Asia. It also enables him to position himself as a key intermediary capable of bringing powerful nations to the table.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump’s special envoy to West Asia, Steve Witkoff, said MbS had played an “instrumental” role in mediating the release of Marc Fogel, aUS teacher who was arrested on charges of bringing medical marijuana into Russia in August 2021.