Rubio doubted the possibility of formalizing security guarantees for Ukraine in a treaty

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio allowed for the legal enshrinement of security guarantees for Kyiv, but noted that concluding a treaty would require approval from Congress and is therefore difficult. The statement came on the eve of talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11, where security issues were named the central topic.

Otabek YusupovFirst published on tafs uz 10 November 2026 at 02:002 min read

The key facts

Rubio: formalizing security guarantees for Ukraine in a treaty is «potentially» possible, but treaties are not easy to conclude
The obstacle is domestic political procedures: a treaty requires approval from Congress
On November 10–11, talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine will take place in Abu Dhabi; Lavrov backed security as the main topic

The Secretary of State's doubts

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed doubt that Washington would be able to enshrine future security guarantees for Kyiv in a full-fledged international treaty. According to Life.ru, he allowed for the legal formalization of the agreements, but acknowledged that such an option has not yet been sufficiently worked out. «Potentially. But I don't know — we've already discussed this in enough detail. And, as you know, treaties are no longer so easy to conclude,» the outlet quotes Rubio as saying during his conversation with journalists in Paris.

What the difficulty consists of

The main difficulty, according to the Secretary of State, lies in American domestic political procedures: concluding an international treaty would require approval from Congress, which may prove difficult to obtain. Gazeta.Ru provides context: in the midterm elections on November 3, the Democratic Party won a majority in both chambers of Congress, and from January the Democrats will be able to set the legislative agenda and use budget powers as leverage over the White House. This makes the prospect of ratifying any agreement on Ukraine even less predictable — however, Rubio himself attributed his doubts precisely to the general difficulty of concluding treaties, not to the composition of the new Congress.

On the eve of Abu Dhabi

The statement came against the backdrop of preparations for a new round of talks between Russia, the United States and Ukraine, scheduled for November 10–11 in Abu Dhabi. Security guarantees and the future architecture of European security are named among the central topics of the consultations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov backed the US proposal to make security issues the main topic of the talks: according to him, Moscow welcomes this approach, since the discussion must take into account not only guarantees for Kyiv, but also the security of Russia and the entire region. Against this backdrop, the US President announced a large-scale agreement that «could affect all of Europe»; in the EU, according to Politico as cited by Gazeta.Ru, the initiative was met with skepticism.