Oslo talks send Witkoff on to St. Petersburg as the Ukraine diplomacy moves a step
Norway's account of Tuesday's meeting, published on Wednesday, records agreement to keep the diplomatic process on track, a working dinner with allied security advisers, and a next stop in Russia for the US envoy.
OSLO: The Norwegian government published its account of Tuesday's Oslo talks on Ukraine on Wednesday, Oct. 21, a day after Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in the capital. Mr Witkoff attended in person, and fellow US envoy Jared Kushner joined the meeting from the United States by video link, the government said.
Oslo framed the meeting as one step in the diplomatic work aimed at a peace for Ukraine that is both just and built to last. Mr Støre said: "We agree that it is crucial to work together, to look to the future and to do everything we can to help ensure that the diplomatic process is on the right track. Peace is possible, and it is necessary, for Ukraine, for Europe, and for the entire world."
The agenda ranged across Ukraine's security, a prosperity plan for the period after the war, and territorial questions, according to the government's account. In his introduction at the joint press conference on Tuesday evening, Mr Støre gave a wider list, adding sanctions and questions related to the European security order to the subjects the leaders had taken up during the day.
A next step in St. Petersburg
The press conference also set out the next move in the process. Mr Støre told reporters that Mr Witkoff would fly on to St. Petersburg on Wednesday to meet the Russian leadership, carrying the ideas from the Oslo meeting and the proposals worked on by European and American colleagues, and possibly paving the way for a meeting at leaders' level. No outcome from that Russian leg is recorded in the Norwegian records published in this run, and none is claimed here.
Mr Støre described the day in Oslo in measured terms. "We have had good, constructive talks today. I would like to acknowledge everyone's positive contributions to the discussions and focus on finding potential ways forward," he said in the government's account. At the press conference he repeated Norway's standing line on how any settlement must be reached: "We have always made it clear; there will be nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine."
The work continued after the press conference. The national security advisers from the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, the European Union and NATO joined the discussions at a working dinner, the government said. Mr Støre underlined how closely Norway works with Finland, with its other European allies and with the United States in trying to move towards peace.
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