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Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz Remarks to the Press [ https://www.state.gov/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-and-national-security-advisor-mike-waltz-remarks-to-the-press/ ] 03/11/2025 04:15 PM EDT
Marco Rubio, Secretary of State
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Ritz Carlton Hotel
*SECRETARY RUBIO:*  Well, as has been clear from his first day as President, even as a candidate, President Trump is a President who wants to be a President of peace.  His goal in this entire process has been to bring about an end to this war.  It’s a terrible war, a costly war, a bloody war, and his number one interest is ending this war once and for all.
Today we’ve made an offer that the Ukrainians have accepted, which is to enter into a ceasefire and into immediate negotiations to end this conflict in a way that’s enduring and sustainable and accounts for their interests, their security, their ability to prosper as a nation.
I want to personally thank – we both want to thank – the team in Saudi Arabia, his majesty, for hosting us, for making this possible.  They’ve been instrumental in this process and we’re very grateful to them for hosting us here today.  And hopefully we’ll – we’ll take this offer now to the Russians, and we hope that they’ll say yes, that they’ll say yes to peace.  The ball is now in their court and – but again, the President’s objective here is, number one, above everything else, he wants the war to end.  And I think today Ukraine has taken a concrete step in that regard.  We hope the Russians will reciprocate.
*NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR WALTZ:*  Well, just to add to the Secretary’s comments, the Ukrainian delegation today made something very clear: that they share President Trump’s vision for peace, they share his determination to end the fighting, to end the killing, to end the tragic meat grinder of people and national treasure that’s happening on the front in Ukraine – number one.  Number two, they made concrete steps and concrete proposals not only accepting our proposal for a full ceasefire – which you can see the details of which are in our joint statement that we released together – but we also got into substantive details on how this war is going to permanently end, what type of guarantees they’re going to have for their long-term security and prosperity, but also really looking at what it’s going to take to finally end this – the horrific fighting.
The other piece that I just want to make very clear is President Trump started this diplomatic effort in the Oval Office talking to both leaders, both President Putin and President Zelenskyy, back to back.  And now that shuttle diplomacy continues.  We have a named delegation in terms of next steps from the Russian side.  We have a named delegation in terms of next steps from the Ukrainian side.  I will talk to my Russian counterpart in the coming days.  Secretary Rubio will be with G7 foreign ministers in the next couple of days.  We have the NATO secretary general in the White House on Thursday.  And we’ll take – we’ll take the process forward from there.  So as a result of that, and I think as a result of this positive step forward, the President has decided to lift the pause on aid and on our security assistance to Ukraine going forward.  And that’s effective immediately.
*MS BRUCE:*  All right.  Your colleagues have chosen three questioners.  Let’s start with Alex Marquardt of CNN.
*QUESTION:*  Thank you.  Several questions on the ceasefire.  We understood that coming into this this was a Ukrainian proposal for a partial ceasefire.  How did this become an American proposal for an immediate 30-day ceasefire?  And to be clear, you’re talking about a complete ceasefire across the front line, not just the aerial and maritime ceasefire that the Ukrainians proposed?  And then finally, how do you expect to take this to the Russians?  Is it Mr. Witkoff, who we understand is heading to Moscow later this week?  Will he deliver that to Putin?  Will it be President Trump to President Putin?  Will it be you and your counterparts?  How will that actually happen, and when?
*SECRETARY RUBIO:*  Well, on the first point of your question is yes.  It’s – that’s the offer.  The offer is to stop the shooting.  The goal here is the only way out – to end this war is to negotiate out of it.  There’s no military solution to this war.  The solution to this war and the way to end it and to achieve the President’s objective of peace is to negotiate.  But before you can negotiate you have to stop shooting at each other, and that’s what the President has wanted to see, and that’s what – that’s the commitment we got today from the Ukrainian side, their willingness to do that.  Obviously, now that will be delivered to the Russians.  It’ll be delivered to them directly through multiple channels, meaning not only will they obviously see it – we’ve – it’ll be communicated to them through our diplomatic channels, through conversations, and other methods.  But they’ll obviously be well aware.  And our hope is that the Russians will say yes, that they will also agree, so the shooting will stop, the killing will stop, the dying will stop, and the talks can begin about how to end this war permanently in a way that’s acceptable and enduring for both sides.
*NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR WALTZ:*  Look, there’s been all kinds of discussions in terms of different types of ceasefires.  There was – there was the deal in terms of grain moving years ago, there’s been discussion of halting aerial attacks on each other’s infrastructure.  The President has made it clear and certainly made it clear to us that all fighting needs to stop.  And the Ukrainians have agreed to that proposal, they’re ready for peace, and now we’ll take that to the Russians and get their response.
*MS BRUCE:*  All right, next.  Jennifer Jacobs, CBS.
*QUESTION:*  Great, hi.
*SECRETARY RUBIO:*  Hi.
*NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR WALTZ:*  Hey.
*QUESTION:*  Are you expecting any goodwill gestures from Russia?  Do you have a deadline in mind for when you’re hoping for them to reciprocate on that – those two things?
*SECRETARY RUBIO:*  Well, on – we’re going to take the offer to them.  We’re going to tell them this is what’s on the table, Ukraine is ready to stop shooting and start talking, and now it’ll be up to them to say yes or no.  I hope they’re going to say yes.  And if they do, then I think we made great progress.  If they say no, then we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here.  But the President has been abundantly clear he wants the shooting to stop, he wants the warfare to stop, he wants the dying and the suffering to stop, and he believes – and rightfully so – that the only way to end this war is to negotiate an end to it.  And we think that it’s always easier to negotiate an end to the war when people aren’t shooting at each other.  That’s how the President believes.  That’s what we hope to achieve.  The Ukrainians today have expressed their willingness and readiness to do so immediately.  We hope the Russians’ answer to that will also be yes.
*QUESTION:*  But no deadline set, sir?
*SECRETARY RUBIO:*  Well, the deadline is we hope to do this as soon as possible.  Every day that goes by that this war continues, people die, people are bombed, people are hurt on both sides of this conflict.  The President wanted this war to end yesterday and the day before.  The President has been clear he wants peace, and so we want to see it as soon as possible.  So our hope is that the Russians will answer yes as quickly as possible so we can get to the second phase of this, which is real negotiations – not never-ending dialogue, talk forever, but real negotiations to end this conflict in a way that’s acceptable to both sides, sustainable, and that ensures the stability and security of Ukraine for the long term.
*QUESTION:*  And then on the goodwill gestures, is there anything like the return of the stolen children or anything that you’re expecting in return for —
*NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR WALTZ:*  Look, we’ve discussed a number of things – prisoner exchanges, folks that were detained, and what have you – but the fighting has to stop.  I mean, that’s what we agreed today.  And just think about it:  We’ve gone from if the war is going to end to now how the war is going to end.  And this was an important first step.  And that was under President Trump’s leadership.  He has literally moved the entire global conversation to where we had a very senior Ukrainian delegation with us today.  We’ve had engagements with our Russian counterparts.  And now it’s how the war is going to end, and that’s under President Trump’s leadership.
*SECRETARY RUBIO:*  Just to answer your question one more time, the goal here is peace.  That’s the President’s goal.  The number – the best goodwill gesture the Russians can provide is to say yes – to say yes to the offer that the Ukrainians have made to stop the shooting, to stop the fighting, and get to the table.  If they do that, that’s the best goodwill sign we could see.  Obviously, as part of that negotiation as we’re talking about how to end this conflict, there will be a lot of issues to unravel – among them, not the least of which is the humanitarian concerns, the children, the prisoners of war, all the things that sadly come with these conflicts.  But the number one goodwill gesture we could see from the Russians is to see the Ukrainian offer and reciprocate it with a yes.
*MS BRUCE:*  All right.  And next, for Reuters, Daphne Psaledakis.
*QUESTION:*  Thank you so much.  Could you clarify what security assistance will be resumed?  Does this include the PDAs?  And why wasn’t the minerals deal signed today?  What are the outstanding issues there?  And if I may, is the relationship with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy back on track?  Do you back him?
*SECRETARY RUBIO:*  Well, on – let me answer the second – or the third.  You had two.  And then I’ll let the security advisor talk about the defense and security assistance.  On the second question – well, let me answer first on the minerals deal that – as part of our communication today.  That is something that was negotiated through our Treasury and his counterpart on the Ukrainian side.  And so the President – and you see that – expressed both presidents will instruct the appropriate members of our governments to bring to finality the signature of the deal and the signature of this agreement.  So that was communicated today and that’s going to happen.  That was not the subject of our talks today.  I thought I made – I expressed that on our way in.  Our – we were here in pursuit of peace.  That doesn’t mean the minerals deal is not very important; it most certainly is.  And we expressed that today in the statements we put out jointly, that the President – our respective presidents have instructed the appropriate members of their governments to bring this to finality and to conclusion.
The second part of your question was?
*QUESTION:*  The – does the security assistance include the PDAs?
*SECRETARY RUBIO:*  No, there was one after that.
*QUESTION:*  And then, is the Zelenskyy relationship back on track?
*SECRETARY RUBIO:*  Yeah, what’s back on track here hopefully is peace.  That’s what matters the most.  I know everyone is looking for who likes – this is serious stuff, okay.  We’re not – this is not Mean Girls.  This is not some episode of some television show.  This is very serious.  People are going to – today, people will die in this war.  They died yesterday.  And sadly, unless there’s a ceasefire tonight, they’ll die tomorrow.  The President wants that to stop.  That’s what he’s interested in here.  That’s why we came here.  That’s why we’re grateful for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hosting us here.  And what we left – leave here with today is a commitment that the Ukrainians are ready to stop fighting.  They’re ready to stop the shooting so that they can get to the table and bring about peace for their country and for the world.
On the security?
*NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR WALTZ:*  Well, I mean, I just can’t echo enough President Trump is a president of peace.  That’s what he is demanding, and he’s willing to take tough measures on all sides to drive that home.  And in terms of the security assistance, it’s the current presidential drawdown authority.  I’ll refer to the Defense Department on the eaches of what munition was where in the process, but it’s the current PDA that will proceed to the Ukrainians.
*MS BRUCE:*  All right.  Everyone, thank you.
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