As US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says, “the ball is already in the Russian court.” This is an important point.
The joint statement of the United States and Ukraine, after a long day of Jeddah talks, contains several key lines, perhaps no more important than: “The United States will communicate with Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to peace.”
In recent weeks, we have heard a lot about what Donald Trump is expecting from Ukraine and what dumb instruments the White House is used to bend Kiev to its will.
It seems time for Russia's intentions to be tested in public.
Donald Trump's deals with Vladimir Putin have so far been wrapped in uncertainty, with no obvious signs of pressure to balance what Volodimir Zelenski is exercising.
The US-Ukrainian statement does not mean that Mr. Trump suddenly changed his tune to Mr Zelenski. Their is a thorny relationship, born for many years of mutual distrust.
But the ugly cloud of acromonia, generated by this broken oval office meeting 11 days ago, may start to dissipate, as the true business of peacekeeping begins.
With the immediate resumption of sharing intelligence in the United States and the assistance of security in Ukraine, after stopping, which lasted only days, Russia can feel pressure.
These are still early days, with a mass of detail that must be settled in the following negotiations.
The statement speaks of “significant details” about the constant end of the war and the type of guarantees that Ukraine can expect “for its long -term security and prosperity.”
But the wording of the last paragraph sounds Washington's opinion that security and prosperity can be achieved by concluding the many critical minerals discussed, not the type of specific military assurances that Kiev seeks.
According to Zelenski and Trump, they have agreed to conclude a “as soon as possible” transaction. How a purely trade agreement can prevent hostile Russian actions in the future is something that still needs to be exposed.
The statement also said that the Ukrainian delegation “reiterated that European partners would participate in the peace process”, but did not shed light on how Washington considered the likely parameters of European participation.
The Saudi Arabia meeting feels like a timely reset after the turbulence of recent days. This does not mean that the United States and Ukraine are fully aligned with the ahead.
If President Zelenski has ever had doubts, he now knows that he is involved in a capricious, variable American president, for whom loyalty and traditional diplomatic behavior have passed very little.
He will do whatever he can to keep the ball in the Russian court, but he knows that he is likely to find himself in it.