NEW YORK, February 18. /TASS/. The US administration has made "a step in the right direction" by holding talks with Russia in Riyadh, the non-profit American Committee for US-Russia Accord said.

According to the New York-based committee, US President Donald Trump’s administration "has taken a step in the right direction by opening talks with their Russian counterparts on ending the war in Ukraine."

"The committee applauds the moves made by Secretary Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister [Sergey] Lavrov to get our respective diplomatic facilities back to operation normally. We believe dialogue without preconditions is only a first step in what will be a long process toward peace and stability in Europe," the group said.

Russian and US delegations held talks on February 18 that lasted about 4 1/2 hours. Russia was represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov and Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev. The US team included US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Witkoff, whose mandate initially covered the Middle East, but was then effectively expanded to encompass Russia and Ukraine.

According to Ushakov, the delegations had a serious conversation on all the issues they wanted to cover, including bringing the views of Russia and the US closer together and Ukraine talks. He said it is unclear who would be appointed as negotiators for the Ukrainian settlement, as the president has yet to make a decision. Lavrov described the talks with Washington officials as very useful and said that Russia and the US agreed to work toward a swift appointment of ambassadors to both countries. The US State Department said that Lavrov and Rubio agreed to set up negotiating teams and cooperate on matters of mutual geopolitical interest.

Witkoff said following the talks, "We couldn't have imagined a better result." According to Waltz, US-Russia relations have the potential to become "very productive and stabilizing," and Trump is determined to move quickly toward that outcome.

Witkoff expressed confidence on February 12, following his visit to Moscow, that if Trump had stayed in the White House following the 2020 presidential election, the crisis in Ukraine would not even have started.