The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, addressed the criticisms surrounding the potential trilateral summit between President Donald Trump, Russian Vladímir Putin, and Chinese Xi Jinping this Tuesday, stating that "we need to mature" in foreign policy matters.
Rubio made statements before the press from Bombay, India, where he was on an official trip.
"We need to mature a bit when it comes to foreign policy. Frankly, I don't think it's unusual for the leaders of the three most powerful nuclear nations on Earth to communicate with each other. I believe it makes perfect sense," he explained.
The head of U.S. diplomacy responded in this way to critical voices—particularly from Ukraine—that consider negotiating with Putin to be tantamount to making concessions.
"That's absurd. For example, how are you going to reach a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine if you don't talk to them? You have to talk to them, right? That's the foundation of diplomacy and negotiations," Rubio emphasized.
The Secretary of State defended that Trump "does not view talking to someone as a concession" and described a potential conversation among the three leaders regarding arms control as "very positive for the world."
The proposed summit would take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, scheduled for November 18 and 19. The idea originated during a call between Trump and Putin on October 9, and the U.S. president himself made it public a day before Rubio's statements.
The Kremlin confirmed that the matter was discussed in that conversation, although it denied that a final agreement exists. For its part, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mao Ning, stated on Tuesday that she did not have any information regarding a possible trilateral summit.
Rubio acknowledged that he does not know if Beijing is willing to engage in that dialogue. "The only way to find out is to try. I know what they have historically stated, but I don't understand why it would be surprising," he noted, referring to China’s traditional stance of conditioning its participation in arms control talks on first meeting the level of others in nuclear capability.
The strongest rejection came from Kiev. The Ukrainian Chancellor, Andrí Sibiga, warned on Monday that "inviting Putin to a meeting of this kind would fuel his appetite for self-aggrandizement and grant him a status he does not deserve."
In parallel to the controversy surrounding the summit, Rubio held a 45-minute call on Tuesday with Ukrainian President Volodímir Zelenski to discuss tensions related to the supply of missile interceptors, intelligence sharing, and access to Starlink.
Rubio rejected that Washington had given directives to harm Ukraine and deemed the accusations that the U.S. would be withholding information that costs Ukrainian lives as "outrageous."
The geopolitical context adds urgency to the debate: the New START treaty, the last binding legal framework for strategic arms control between Washington and Moscow, expired in February, leaving both powers without agreed limits on their nuclear arsenals.
"I believe the world is safer when the leaders of countries with the most powerful nuclear arsenals at least communicate with one another," Rubio concluded.
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