Rubio says U.S. never discussed with EU easing of Russia sanctions

That’s according to the secretary’s comments to journalists, Ukrinform reports with reference to the State Department website.

When asked whether the American side discussed with the Europeans what the easing of sanctions against Russia, imposed over to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, could look like, Rubio said: “We’ve not gotten to that stage.”

“And obviously, the Europeans have their own set of sanctions, and we can’t – they’ll have to make the decision about what they’re willing to do,” he added.

Rubio noted that the final settlement of the war “will have to involve Europeans because of their sanctions that they’ve imposed”.

He noted that the United States was in close contact with both the United Kingdom and France regarding joint meetings, particularly after the G7 summit in Canada on March 12-14.

The Secretary of State also said that the United States opposes language in G7 statements that could harm their efforts to bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table.

“Ultimately, we can’t sign onto any communique that’s not consistent with our position to bring both sides to the table… We feel like antagonistic language sometimes makes it harder to bring parties to a table, especially since we’re the only ones right now that seem to be in a position to make talks like that possible,” Rubio said.

He expressed confidence that “we’ll be able to put out a document that’s meaningful and unifying without undermining our ability to bring both sides to the table”.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, citing Bloomberg’s report, the United States had rejected Canada’s proposal at the G7 to create a working group to counter Russia’s “shadow fleet”.

Canada, which holds the G7 presidency this year, will host a summit of G7 foreign ministers this week in Charlevoix, Quebec. According to sources, in negotiations on a joint statement on maritime issues, the United States is pushing for a tougher stance on China while softening demands on Russia.