Geneva (EFE).—United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after meeting Ukrainian officials in Geneva on Saturday to discuss United States President Donald Trump’s peace plan that some issues remain unresolved, but none are “insurmountable,” as Washington and Kyiv push to narrow differences before the Nov. 27 deadline.
Rubio told reporters at the United States Mission in Geneva that negotiators made “significant” advances during the day-long session with the Ukrainian delegation led by Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I can tell you that the items still open are not insurmountable; we just needed more time than we had today. Honestly, I think we will reach an agreement,” he said.
Asked about a reported European “counter-proposal” that surfaced in the media on Sunday, one that allegedly suggests reducing Ukraine’s military from 900,000 to 800,000 troops instead of the 600,000 envisioned in Trump’s plan, Rubio said he had no knowledge of such a document.
He acknowledged, however, that several points involving the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) “were set aside because we just met with national security advisers from several European countries, and we must address those issues with them, as they are directly affected.”
Progress made, but decisions still pending
Rubio described the talks as productive. “We had a very good day; I think we achieved an enormous amount of progress,” he said at the start of his remarks.
“Today we came here with one goal: to take the 28 or 26 points of the plan, depending on the version as it evolved, and try to narrow down the ones that remained open. We achieved that in a very significant way.”
He noted that any final agreement would have to be approved by Trump and Zelenskyy, and said the US was giving Ukraine flexibility beyond Trump’s initial Nov. 27 response deadline.
“As this remains an ongoing process, I don’t want to declare victory or conclude anything. There are still things to resolve, but we are much further along now than when we began this morning, and certainly more than a week ago.”
Russian position considered despite absence
Although Russia did not participate in the Geneva discussions, Rubio said Moscow’s views “also have a voice here,” adding that their position “has been communicated to us in multiple ways from the start of this process.”
He reiterated that Saturday’s session was “the best day we have had in ten months of work on these issues.”
“It is clear that to achieve a definitive end to this war, Ukraine must feel secure and know that it will not be invaded or attacked again,” he said. EFE
abc/seo
