•Putin’s group rules out territorial concessions 

•Mexico to sue Google over name change of Gulf of Mexico on US maps

Russia said Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, will hold talks with top US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, today (Tuesday) that will focus on ending the war in Ukraine and restoring “the whole complex” of Russia-US ties.

Rubio arrived in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Monday on a previously planned trip. US National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy,  Steve Witkoff, who were set to arrive later yesterday, will be joining him at the talks with the Russians.

The talks will be among the first high-level, in-person discussions in years between Russian and US officials and are meant to precede a meeting between the US and Russian presidents.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Lavrov and Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy advisor to President Vladimir Putin, would fly to the Saudi capital Riyadh, a Reuters report said.

“They are expected to hold a meeting with their American counterparts on Tuesday, which will focus primarily on restoring the entire complex of Russian-American relations,” Peskov said.

“It will also be devoted to the preparation of possible negotiations on the Ukrainian settlement and the organisation of a meeting between the two presidents,” he added.

US State Department spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, confirmed that Rubio, Waltz, and Witkoff will meet with the Russian delegation in Riyadh on Tuesday.

The talks come after President Donald Trump last week spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone and ordered top officials to begin negotiations on the war, which he repeatedly vowed to end during his presidential campaign.

Riyadh, which is also involved in talks with Washington over the future of the Gaza Strip, has played a role in early contacts between the Trump administration, which took office on January 20, and Moscow, helping to secure a prisoner swap last week.

US top diplomat, Rubio, who spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday, said on Sunday that the coming weeks and days would determine whether Putin is serious about making peace.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is also in the region. Zelenskiy, who arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, said he also intended to visit Saudi Arabia and Turkey, but no dates were set. He said he had no plans to meet Russian or US officials and Ukraine is not believed to be invited to the Saudi-hosted talks.

In the same vein, Russian Foreign Minister, Lavrov on Monday ruled out territorial concessions to Ukraine, setting out a tough opening stance on the eve of talks on Tuesday with US President Donald Trump’s team in Saudi Arabia.

Trump said after a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that the two sides would begin talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said Lavrov and Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy adviser who has also been ambassador to Washington, would meet U.S. officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Saudi Arabia.

Lavrov said there would be no talk of territorial concessions to Ukraine, around 20 per cent of which is controlled by Russian forces.

“Territorial concessions to what is now called Ukraine were made by the Soviet leadership during the formation of the USSR,” Lavrov said before heaping scorn on a Ukrainian bid to do a deal giving the United States access to minerals.

“How should we give in – with Russian people or with rare earth metals?” Lavrov said.

Reuters reported in November that Putin was ready to negotiate a deal with Trump, but would refuse to make major territorial concessions and would insist Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.

A source with knowledge of Kremlin thinking said on Monday that Putin was serious about doing a deal, but not at any price. The Kremlin said the talks would focus on restoring Russian-US relations and preparations for possible talks on ending the war.

The administration of former US president Joe Biden, most EU leaders and Ukraine cast Russia’s war as a land grab aimed at restoring Russian power. Kyiv and some EU leaders say that if Putin wins, he could try to attack NATO.

Russia dismisses that interpretation and denies any such plan. Putin says his “special military operation” was needed to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine and counter what he said was the threat from potential Ukrainian NATO membership.

Meanwhile, Mexico has vowed it will take Google to court if maps shown to US-based users continue to label the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America across the entire body of water, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday.

Sheinbaum argued that US President, Trump’s order to rename it only applies to the part of the continental shelf under US control.

“What Google is doing here is changing the name of the continental shelf of Mexico and Cuba, which has nothing to do with Trump’s decree, which applied only to the US continental shelf,” Sheinbaum told reporters. “We do not agree with this, and the Foreign Minister has sent a new letter addressing the issue,” Sheinbaum added.

Sheinbaum said the renaming is “incorrect,” adding that Trump’s decree “only changed the name within his own continental shelf, which extends 22 nautical miles from the US coast—not the entire Gulf.”

Last week, Google renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for US-based users of Google Maps, citing “a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”

People in Mexico continue to see the body of water listed as the Gulf of Mexico. All other countries see both names.  Sheinbaum first threatened to take Google to court last week, saying a civil suit could be on the table if the tech giant does not correct what she called an “inaccurate designation,” CNN reported.

During Monday’s press conference, Sheinbaum read out a response from Google to a letter sent by Mexico to the company in January, contesting the tech giant’s decision to rename the area.

“As we first announced two weeks ago, and consistent with our product policies, we’ve begun rolling out changes in Google Maps. We would like to confirm that people using Maps in Mexico will continue to see ‘Gulf of Mexico,’” the letter from Google reiterated.