Description: The meeting between US State Secretary Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ended on a positive note with winds of cooperation blowing from both the East and the West. With Ukraine being on the top of the agenda, both sides have stated they have laid the groundwork for a potential direct meeting between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in the near future. European countries and Ukraine have deemed the meeting illegitimate since all concerned parties weren’t present, however, US and Russian representatives have stated that they merely discussed diplomatic broad strokes so far. Information regarding future concessions was scarce but both the US and Russia agreed upon restoring diplomatic relations with respective diplomatic posts in Moscow and Washington. Rubio and Lavrov also stated they made initial contacts for possible closer economic and trade cooperation once the dispute with the sanctions is elevated.
Impact: The restoration of relationship between the two most powerful countries in the world signals significant shift in further geopolitical posturing. The meeting entailed basic future references for communication which would embroil mostly around the Ukraine question. Several red lines were preemptively drawn from both sides such as territorial concessions, the lifting of sanctions and the deployment of peacekeeping contingents on the Ukraine – Russia border. The US would need to carefully maneuver throughout the entire reignition of relations with Russia as the latter is in a much more advantageous position according to the facts on the ground. The exclusion of Ukraine and other European countries shouldn’t be given too much credit as the meeting should be perceived as initial sizing up between the US and Russia, before the countries engage in high – level negotiations in the near future.