American and Russian officials have identified the Arctic as a possible area of economic cooperation, Bloomberg reported on Feb. 26, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
U.S. President Donald Trump said that Washington and Moscow are discussing economic agreements, with his administration adopting a more amicable stance toward Russia than his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Moscow is offering the Trump administration a deal on Russian natural resources and access to the Arctic, said Kirill Dmitriev, one of the Russian delegates in recent U.S.-Russian talks in Saudi Arabia.
The news comes as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the Trump administration is seeking to disengage Russia from China.
China has remained a key ally of Russia throughout the full-scale invasion, deepening economic ties and becoming Moscow's leading source of dual-use goods — equipment the Russian military uses in its war against Ukraine.
In an interview with Breitbart News published on Feb. 26, Rubio said he did not know if it would ever be possible to completely peel Moscow off of relations with Beijing.
"I also don’t think having China and Russia at each other’s neck is good for global stability because they’re both nuclear powers," he added.
"But I do think we’re in a situation now where the Russians have become increasingly dependent on the Chinese and that’s not a good outcome either if you think about it."
Rubio fears that further rapprochement between China and Russia will become a problem for Washington if Moscow turns into Beijing's "junior partner."
"We could find ourselves in a situation where whether Russia wants to improve its relations with the U.S. or not, they can’t because they’ve become completely dependent on the Chinese because we have cut them off," Rubio said.
The U.S. secretary of state described the U.S.-China ties as "the big story of the 21st century." According to him, Washington will have disagreements with Russia and China, but it is important to maintain relations with both.
In recent days, the Trump administration has upended years of U.S. foreign policy towards Russia and Ukraine. American and Russian delegations are holding the second round of talks in Istanbul on Feb. 27. The first meeting between the two nations took place in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 18.
No concrete decisions on peace negotiations were announced following the talks in Saudi Arabia, but Ukraine's exclusion from the meeting sparked alarm in Kyiv and Europe.
In early February, Trump imposed a 10% tariff on goods from China. Referring to the war in Ukraine, he said China has "a great deal of power over that situation" and that he hoped the U.S. could work with Beijing to end the full-scale invasion.
The Kyiv Independent
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