Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman in a telephone call for creating favorable conditions for Russian-US talks, the Kremlin reported today.

Putin warmly congratulated the crown prince, the leaders and the people of the kingdom on the upcoming National Day holiday, and also expressed his gratitude for the creation of favorable conditions for February 18 talks and the hospitality shown.

The two leaders also confirmed ‘the commitment to further develop progressively Russian-Saudi cooperation, including in such areas as trade, investment and energy’.

The parties will continue to cooperate closely within the framework of OPEC+ in order to maintain stability in the world oil market, the text said.

On Tuesday, the Saudi capital hosted consultations between Russia and the United States, the first high-level bilateral negotiations in a long time.

According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the parties pledged to create conditions for a full restoration of cooperation between Moscow and Washington and expand it to new areas of mutual interest.

In particular, it was agreed to mutually remove restrictions on the work of embassies and other institutions and to form high-level working groups to negotiate a speedy settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.

Russia was represented at the negotiating table by Lavrov and Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov.

On the U.S. side, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff participated.