Rubio says Trump team poised to help end Ukraine's 'senseless war' but no quick deal

Audio By Carbonatix

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday the Trump administration is poised to help end the “senseless war” in Ukraine but acknowledged there is no quick path to a deal, saying diplomacy will require sustained effort and new ideas.

Rubio, who earlier held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow and Kyiv should have the incentive to end a “very blood war” that devastated both sides.

Rubio alluded to how U.S.-mediated talks have stalled, calling them “unsuccessful or at least unfruitful” in the past but insisted U.S. President Donald Trump was committed to the work “if conditions and factors have changed to make that possible.”

“That’s been the challenge, an end that both sides can accept. And we’ve tried and we’ll continue to try to see if we can, you know, find a middle ground that brings this about. And we’re prepared to play that role if the opportunity presents itself,” Rubio told reporters.

Lavrov largely ignored questions from reporters after the meeting. The Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow said he emphasized to Rubio “the unacceptability of further arming” Ukraine and accused European countries of pursuing Russia's “strategic defeat.”

Lavrov reiterated Russia’s readiness for “a political and diplomatic resolution of the conflict” and commitment to agreements reached at a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump in Alaska last year, the Russian ministry said.

Washington’s military support for Ukraine remains unchanged, with arms transfers continuing through NATO’s PURL initiative, Rubio said.

“There’s been no change to our policy in that regard. We want a peace deal. We want the war to end,” he added.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of an annual gathering by foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila.

Three days of closed-door talks that started Tuesday have focused on the resurgent war in the Middle East, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and, closer to home, the South China Sea, where a new clash flared Thursday.

U.S. efforts to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war have dropped off as indirect talks stalled and the Iran war took center stage. Renewed strikes by Washington and Tehran have been intensifying after an interim ceasefire deal collapsed.

Expectations for renewed discussions about ending the war comes as Ukraine has made significant progress this year but a rift between defense leaders has threatened to derail its efforts. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has undertaken a major government reshuffle, including its top military brass.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong renewed her country's alarm over the Chinese navy’s recent test-launch of a missile from a nuclear-powered submarine in the region, saying the lack of notification to the Philippines and Pacific nations where the missile flew over and landed was destabilizing.

“It comes in the context of a rapid military build-up of China’s nuclear arsenal without the transparency or reassurance the region expects,” Wong told a university forum in Manila on Thursday. “This is why Australia has described the test as provocative and destabilizing.”

China has defended its actions, saying the launch was part of annual exercises and that it gave countries in the area appropriate notice in advance.

Rubio also had a long meeting Wednesday with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and separately with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

Rubio told reporters he and Wang discussed a new altercation this week between Chinese and Filipino forces in a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety. Rubio called the incident “escalatory.”

“Those need to be managed very carefully, because obviously, a conflict — be it economic or otherwise — between the U.S. and China would have a dramatic global impact,” Rubio said.

In Beijing, the Chinese coast guard said it took necessary measures, including monitoring and blocking, to drive away two Philippine ships that disregarded repeated warnings from the Chinese side in a confrontation on Thursday.

China said its operations were professional and lawful and urged the Philippines to stop its provocative actions infringing on Chinese territory. Philippine officials did not immediately issue a comment.

The Trump administration has repeatedly criticized China’s assertive actions in the South China Sea to the disadvantage of smaller claimant countries like the Philippines, Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia. Taiwan and ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have also been involved in the often-tense territorial standoffs.

ASEAN foreign ministers discussed the territorial disputes Tuesday, welcoming progress in yearslong negotiations between China and their regional bloc on a proposed non-aggression pact that both sides hope to conclude this year, according to a draft of a joint communiqué seen by The Associated Press.

The so-called code of conduct aims to prevent a major conflict in the disputed waters, a key global trade route, that could draw in the United States.

___

Associated Press journalists Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, Haruka Nuga in Bangkok and Fu Ting in Washington contributed to this report.