By The Moscow Times | Created at 2025-03-10 19:30:31 | Updated at 2025-03-10 22:35:28
3 hours ago
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the United States would oppose “antagonistic” language toward Russia when G7 foreign ministers meet in Canada this week.
“Ultimately, we can’t sign on to any communique that’s not consistent with our position to bring both sides to the table,” Rubio told reporters while en route to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for talks with Ukraine.
Washington’s position is not about “taking anyone’s side, but because we feel like antagonistic language sometimes makes it harder to bring parties to the table,” he added, while acknowledging that other G7 members — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — held different views.
“We’re the only ones right now that seem to be in a position to make talks like that possible,” Rubio said.
President Donald Trump has dramatically shifted U.S. foreign policy, last month voting alongside Russia — and against most of its own Western allies — on a UN resolution that avoided calling for Moscow’s full withdrawal from occupied territories.
Rubio’s visit to Jeddah this week aims to gauge Ukraine’s willingness to make concessions after Trump froze military aid to Kyiv following a confrontational White House meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Canada, which currently holds the G7 presidency, is hosting the foreign ministers’ meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, starting Wednesday. The summit comes as Trump escalates tensions with Ottawa, imposing tariffs and mocking Canada as the “51st state.”
Rubio said he expects to discuss the dispute with his Canadian counterpart, Melanie Joly, but emphasized that the two countries remain NATO and NORAD allies.
“Our obligation is to try to the extent possible to not allow everything we work on together to be impacted negatively by the things we disagree on right now,” he said.
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