US says ending Ukraine conflict top priority amid talks of trilateral meet between Putin, Xi and Trump

US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Monday said ending the Russia-Ukraine war remained a top priority for President Donald Trump, adding that Washington would continue exploring ways to bring the conflict to an end.Rubio remarked as he addressed reporters during his visit to Uzbekistan.Rubio said the US had spent nearly two years trying to facilitate an end to the conflict. He said Trump remained willing to take any steps that could help end the war, although progress so far had fallen short of expectations, China's Xinhua news agency reported.The state secretary mentioned that the recent suspension of certain US sanctions on Russia was intended to assess whether ongoing negotiations with both Moscow and Kyiv could yield positive results and prevent another year of devastating conflict.On Sunday, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov criticised Ukraine and the European Union over what he described as their reaction to a “diesel deal” between Moscow and Washington.Speaking at a press conference after the ninth Russia-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Joint Ministerial Meeting for Strategic Dialogue in Manama on October 18, Lavrov said the arrangement was a bilateral matter between Russia and the US.“The ‘diesel deal’ between Moscow and Washington is a matter for Moscow and Washington,” Lavrov said.He added that if the EU viewed the deal as a betrayal of Ukraine, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Russian diesel exports required his approval, the issue was no longer about energy security but about “self-promotion and yet another clown show”.On Monday, Moscow said that a trilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could take place next month on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in China to discuss ending the Ukraine conflict.Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the possibility of such a meeting had been raised, but no concrete proposals or agreements had been made regarding the meeting or its potential agenda.“Given that all three heads of state may potentially take part in the summit in China, the subject of such a hypothetical meeting was indeed raised. It was raised, but no specific proposals or agreements were discussed or put forward by anyone, either regarding the meeting itself or the possible agenda and content of that meeting,” Peskov said.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.