WASHINGTON — When senior officials from Russia and the United States gathered for their most high-level contact in years on Tuesday, the venue was Saudi Arabia — a sign of President Donald Trump’s fondness for the wealthy Arab partner. 

The four-and-a-half-hour meeting in the Saudi capital led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov focused on mending ties between their two countries, including by reestablishing embassy staffing, and on ending the war in Ukraine that began with Russia's 2022 invasion. Trump has said he plans to meet in Saudi Arabia with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, sometime in the “not too distant future.” 

The US-Russia talks are the latest show of Riyadh’s ambitions as a global power broker. It hosted a two-day peace summit on Ukraine in 2023, convening officials from more than 40 countries. The Trump administration also credited Saudi Arabia with helping secure the Kremlin’s release of American schoolteacher Marc Fogel this month. 

After Tuesday’s meeting with the Russian delegation concluded, Rubio told reporters that Saudi Arabia had played an “indispensable role” in bringing Moscow and Washington together for talks.