China welcomes US-Russia talks on Ukraine

China welcomes the United States-Russia talks on the Ukraine crisis and calls on all parties and stakeholders to participate in the process of peace talks at an appropriate time, the Foreign Ministry said.

"On the Ukraine crisis, China believes that dialogue and negotiation are the only viable way out of the crisis, and it has been committed to promoting talks for peace," Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jia-kun told reporters on Tuesday at a regular news briefing in Beijing.

Senior officials from the US and Russia met on Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for talks on improving bilateral ties and ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The Russian delegation was led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while the US team was led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and included National Security Advisor Michael Waltz.

Held in the presence of Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the talks were part of Saudi Arabia's "ongoing efforts to promote global security and peace", the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The US-Russia talks were also expected to pave the way for a possible meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on Tuesday that the four-and-a-half-hour talks in Riyadh were successful and that the two sides discussed the terms of a meeting between Putin and Trump, according to Reuters, which cited a report by the Russian news agency TASS.

The US State Department emphasized that the peace efforts are at an early stage, Reuters reported.

"One phone call followed by one meeting is not sufficient to establish enduring peace," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said, referring to the Riyadh talks and the recent phone call between Trump and Putin.

On Monday, European leaders met in Paris for an emergency meeting, voicing their continued support for Ukraine, but failing to agree on potential peacekeeping missions after the end of the crisis.

"Today in Paris we reaffirmed that Ukraine deserves peace through strength. Peace respectful of its independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, with strong security guarantee," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa said in a joint statement posted on X late Monday night after the meeting.

"Europe carries its full share of the military assistance to Ukraine. At the same time we need a surge in defense in Europe," the statement said.

Von der Leyen will take the European Commission's College of Commissioners on a trip to Kyiv next week to show support for Ukraine on the third anniversary of the conflict, a European Commission spokesperson said on Monday.