QUESTION: Joining me now is the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was also on the trip to Alaska with President Trump and who will be there tomorrow with President Trump and Zelenskyy at the White House. Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
QUESTION: Why did President Trump's meeting with Putin end with no ceasefire, and what does Putin want?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, yeah. Well, a couple things. First of all, if you recall, there's no way you can have a meeting like that - and we never said there was going to be a deal coming out of the meeting because the Ukrainians are not there. This is a war between two countries. It's not America. It's Ukraine and Russia. We met with the Russian side. We've spoken repeatedly with the Ukrainian side. We'll see them again tomorrow in person along with our allies in Europe. So I do think some progress was made in that talk.
In terms of narrowing down the issue set, and now these are hard issues that remain - the conversation about where the territorial lines are going to be, questions about long-term security guarantees and who Ukraine can have military alliances with, things like that - these are difficult things. But I do believe we made progress in narrowing down the issue set, but there's a lot of work that remains.
There's still - this is a - there's a reason why this war has been going on for three and a half years. It's a war that never would have happened had President Trump been president, but he inherited it, and now he's trying to do everything he can to bring about peace. He's made peace a priority of his administration, as you've seen with all the peace deals we've been able to achieve throughout the world. This one's the hardest one. Everyone acknowledges that. But he's the only one in the world that has any chance of doing it.
Look, peace may not be possible at the end of the day. We don't know. But if it is possible, he's the only one that can get it done, and that's why everyone's asking him. They're asking him to meet with Putin, and they're also asking him to come here tomorrow and meet with him to talk further about what we do next.
QUESTION: A European diplomat has confirmed to Fox that President Trump supports Putin's proposal for Russia to take full control of Luhansk and Donetsk, all of Donbas. Do you support this move?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No. First of all, I don't know who told you that, but they don't know what they're talking about. I mean, the President has said that in terms of territories and stuff, these are things that Zelenskyy is going to have to decide on. These are things that the Ukrainian side is going to have to agree to. That's - all the President is trying to do here is narrow down the open issues, narrow them down and then see if we can play some role in bringing that closer together so we can stop and end this war once and for all.
Look, this war is only going to get worse. It's not going to get better. You've seen that in the escalation in the attacks. Russia's economy is now 100 percent full-time war footing. They are producing munitions. The Ukrainians are as well. Both sides are hitting each other very, very hard, and the war is only going to get worse. It's not going to get better.
So he's trying to do everything he can to bring it to an end, but people that are out there talking what they don't know with all these stupid leaks and things of that nature, they all want to just sound important. They don't know what they're talking about. The President has been very - the President's been very clear. He - in terms of, like, what Zelenskyy is going to agree to, that's up to them to decide. They're going to have to decide what they're willing to give and ultimately what they're going to get, what they're going to demand as well.
Both sides are going to - but here's what I can tell you for certain. You can't have a peace deal between two warring factions unless both sides agree to give up something and both sides agree that the other side gets something, right? Otherwise, if one side gets everything they want, that's not a peace deal. It's called surrender. And I don't think this is a war that's going to end anytime soon on the basis of surrender.
So this is tough stuff. I mean, it's difficult to bring these two sides together. We've made some progress, we believe, and now we'll have to follow up on that progress. And ultimately, where this should lead is to a meeting between the three leaders, between Zelenskyy, Putin, and President Trump, where we could finalize it. But we've got to get this thing closer before we get to that point.
QUESTION: What does Europe want, Secretary?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, look, I think the role that Europe can play ultimately in the long term is on security guarantees that Ukraine has been talking about. They should play a key element in that regard. And I also think the Europeans are very helpful being in the room sometimes and sort of giving ideas about what accommodations can be made and what flexibility the Ukrainian side could have.
So that's the role that they've played up to this point. The President invited them to come here. He told President Zelenskyy to come on Monday and bring European leaders that he chose to bring with him, so there's a handful of heads of state that will be here as well tomorrow at the invitation of the President to see if we can make some progress on some of these points.
The President spoke to many of these leaders on the airplane - I think it was 2 o'clock in the morning our time, it was probably 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock in the morning their time - on our way back from Alaska. And there it was - and then yesterday I had a call with all the national security advisors of the different countries.
So we've got a work agenda ahead of us over the next few days, and we've been talking about these things now for a while as well, so - because we also talked to them before. We had multiple meetings and conversations with them leading up to the events in Alaska. So they can play a very constructive role here, but ultimately, only President Trump - if a peace deal is possible, he's the only one that can bring it about.
QUESTION: Is Europe still buying Russian oil?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, if you look at the oil that's going to China and being refined, a lot of that is then being sold back into Europe. Europe's also buying natural gas still. Now, there are countries trying to get - to wean themselves off of it, but there's more Europe can do with regards to their own sanctions. If they're - they always talk about sanctions, and they've got a sanctions package coming out as well, but - an additional sanctions package supposedly coming out soon. So - but for us, I think the most important role that Europe can play here is to have a constructive role in building up those security guarantees that will allow Ukraine the potential flexibility to make a deal on the rest of the issues that are at stake.
QUESTION: Well, I mean, wouldn't that be a major lever to pull, to put sanctions on Europe or punish Europe for continuing to buy oil and gas from Russia? Is that something on the table?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I don't know about on Europe directly, obviously, but certainly there are implications to secondary sanctions. If you put secondary sanctions on a country - let's say you were to go after the oil sales of Russian oil to China. Well, China just refines that oil. That oil is then sold into the global marketplace, and anyone who's buying that oil would be paying more for it or, if it doesn't exist, would have to find an alternative source for it. So we have heard, when you talk about the Senate bill that was being proposed where there was a hundred percent tariffs on China and India, we did hear from a number of European countries - not in press releases but we heard from them - some concern about what that could mean.
But look, I don't want to get into a tit-for-tat with the Europeans on this. I think they can play a very constructive role here in helping us get to that point. But - and the President has kept them in the loop. The first call the President made as soon as the meeting with Putin was over was to Secretary General of NATO Mark Rutte, who will be there tomorrow as well. We've been in touch with them over and over again with regards to this process.
So I think the President's done an incredible job here of trying to bring the sides together. There's a lot of work that still remains. You don't have a deal, as the President says, until you have a deal. This is not an easy deal. This is not a war that began under President Trump. It's not - as you saw acknowledged at the press conference there in Alaska, it's actually a war that would not have happened had President Trump been in the White House. He inherits a three-year-old war, and now he's trying to untangle it, and - because if this falls apart, this thing is going to get far worse and go on much longer. You have thousands and thousands of more people are going to die and be injured as a result of this.
QUESTION: Can you give us any clarity on a timeline in terms of the U.S.'s thinking? I mean, obviously there's no ceasefire in place right now. What are the repercussions? Are we just going to watch the murders continue?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, look, at some point, a decision has to be made if a peace deal is possible or not. If at some point it becomes clear that both sides are so far apart and so dug in that we're just not near a peace deal, then the President will have a decision to make about how much more time do we invest in it and what actions does he take then.
But I want everyone to understand if tomorrow - if this morning the President woke up and said I'm putting these terrible, strong sanctions on Russia, that's fine. It may make people feel good for a couple hours, but here's what you're basically saying. You're saying talks are over; for the foreseeable future, for the next year or year and a half, there's no more talks.
Because there's no one else in the world that can talk to him, okay? Putin is not going to meet with Macron. He's not going to meet with the UK, with all due respect to these leaders. None of these leaders are going to be able to bring him to the table and talk to them. There's only one leader in the world that has any chance of bringing these two sides together. If there is a chance, there's only one leader in the world that can do it, and that's President Trump. And you forfeit that role the minute you put additional sanctions on him. We may get to that point, unfortunately, but if we do, it means that peace talks are no longer possible, and that would be very unfortunate, because the real-world ramifications are that while we're here calling each other names and doing TV interviews about this stuff and all of that in American politics, there are people who today will be injured and killed in the battlefield and in cities in Ukraine, on the front lines, and even in Russia. Even as we speak, people that have nothing to do with this war are suffering as a result of it.
And I think we are very fortunate and blessed and should be thankful to have a President that has made peace and the achievement of peace a priority of his administration. We've seen it in Cambodia and Thailand. We've seen it in India-Pakistan. We've seen it in Rwanda and the DRC. And we're going to continue to pursue any opportunities we can find to bring about peace in the world.
QUESTION: Understood. What are you expecting to present to Zelenskyy tomorrow?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think tomorrow's conversations, a lot of it will be centered around what are the kinds of security guarantees that Ukraine is looking for, because what Ukraine is looking for here is how do - okay, the war ends. How do we make sure this doesn't happen again? How do we make sure that, in two or three years, the Russians don't come back at us? So they want guarantees built up so that they can protect themselves or prevent such a war from occurring in the future.
So the details of what that would look like is something that hopefully we'll spend a lot of time discussing tomorrow. We had a long conversation about it yesterday with the national security advisers of multiple European countries. Some work has already gone into it, but now we're at a stage where we need to build some details on it, and then ultimately, obviously present that to the Russian side, who - and get them to accept it. But first we have to have our ducks in order.
QUESTION: Well, what kind of security guarantees is the U.S. willing to make?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, that'll be part of the conversation tomorrow. At the end of the day, the truth of the matter is that any security guarantee that - the Europeans, there's a lot they can do and a lot they can offer, and it would be a huge concession. It would be a very big move by the President if he were to offer a U.S. commitment to a security guarantee. That will be his decision to make. And I want people to understand that. That's - that tells you how bad - if he does it, it tells you how badly he wants peace, how much he values peace, that he would be willing to make a concession like that. But ultimately, that will be a decision for the President to make.
That's what we'll talk about tomorrow. I'm sure we'll spend six, seven hours talking about these things, maybe more, and sort of get to a point where we have something more concrete. We've done a lot of work on it already, but a little - some more work is required before we can say that we have a plan on security guarantees that unifies us.
QUESTION: Well, what other economic levers does the U.S. have to use here? I mean, you've got the secondary sanctions and you said perhaps there is something to be done with China. What about designating Russia as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, which is something Lindsey Graham has been working on?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, those designations can be useful from time to time, but in this particular case, it's not going to change the course of the war. Look, can the U.S. inflict greater pain on the Russian economy going after the banking sector, the oil companies, and things of this nature? Of course we could. Of course we can. And that always remains, unfortunately, an option. But just understand: If we get to the point where we're doing that, okay, it may make people feel good, and it may have an implication on Russia in the long term, but in the short term, what it means is that talks are over, that at this point we are basically now stuck with another year and a half or two of war, of death, of destruction. That's what it means.
We may get to that point, sadly and unfortunately, because peace is not possible. But that - we're trying to avoid getting to that point. We want to give every opportunity possible for the Russians to say yes to something that Ukraine can live with, and that's what we're trying to do. And I think the President deserves a lot of credit for wanting to do that. No one else has tried to do that. Joe Biden couldn't have done it. No other leader in the world could do it. Frankly, he doesn't have to do it.
Look, the war in Ukraine gets a lot of attention, and I'm not saying it's an irrelevant thing. It's a very tragic thing that's going on. But life in America on a daily basis will be largely unaffected, whether there's peace in Ukraine or not. That's just a fact. We have a lot of issues we're focused on, not just at home but around the world. But the fact that the President has dedicated this much time to a war between two countries on another continent tells you how much he values peace. And we should be very thankful and grateful that we have a President who's a President of peace, who values peace and wants to use the power of his office to achieve the end of wars and the prevention of new ones.
QUESTION: But isn't the U.S. directly impacted because of that rare earth minerals deal? How important is that deal, and has Putin already affected that deal by bombing the region?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, first of all, that deal is important but, I mean, it's not - the United States has other sources of rare earth minerals. I think that deal's very important for Ukraine in terms of their own reconstruction and rebuilding, and to have American partners in a postwar Ukraine is of great benefit to Ukraine. And obviously, it would be great for us too. But I don't think that alone justifies us being behind a war effort here. What we want to be able to do here is be behind a peace effort. We want to achieve the end of a war.
So I'm not saying our interests in Ukraine are zero. What I am saying is the amount of time and energy that this administration has placed on this war is something that people should compare to some of the other issues we have around the world that deserve our attention as well. And the President just deserves a lot of credit for putting so much time and energy behind something that is very, very difficult to end. It's a very difficult war to end.
The Russians feel very strongly that they have the upper hand, that they're making progress. They don't necessarily feel pressure. And the Ukrainians feel very strongly that they were invaded, that they've been aggrieved, and that what the Russians have done is horrifying and should be stopped. So both sides are pretty dug in. And we don't have sanctions on Ukraine; we have sanctions on Russia. We don't provide weapons to Russia; we provide weapons and assistance to Ukraine. So the U.S. has done a lot already with regards to this.
But this President is trying to figure out how to end it, how to stop it. And I think that's incredible, that we have a President willing to use the power of the United States and the power - that's the goal here. It's not to win the war, it's to end it.
QUESTION: So will you continue to put pressure on Russia in all ways in order to stop this? What is the next pressure point?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, in order to have a peace deal, both sides are going to have to make concessions. And so obviously, the Russian side is going to have to make concessions. One side cannot get everything they want. If one - if in a negotiation one side gets everything they want, that's not a peace deal; that's a surrender. That's the terms of surrender. And I don't think you're going to see surrender by either side anytime soon.
So the reality of it is, in order to make a peace deal, Ukraine is going to have to accept things it doesn't like and Russia is going to have to accept things it doesn't like.
QUESTION: Okay.
SECRETARY RUBIO: And we need to be able to use the influence of the presidency to push both sides to make those concessions.
QUESTION: Did Putin bring up a potential nuclear deal with the United States as part of this?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No. No, the talks were almost exclusively - and I would say 99 percent were just about the war and about how to bring it to an end, and the Russian perspective. And don't - people should not underestimate the value of meeting in person. They've had multiple phone conversations, but meeting in person really allows you to get a better gauge of how strongly one side feels about certain issues. We've met with the Ukrainians dozens of times. It's our first meeting with the Russian side in terms of at the level of President Putin. And obviously the - hopefully, the next time we meet, it'll be because Zelenskyy is in the room and they're getting close to finalizing a peace deal.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, we wish you success tomorrow. Thanks very much for being here.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you.
QUESTION: Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
