During their visit to Riyadh, Putinโs envoy stayed in the Ritz-Carlton, where in 2017 hundreds of Saudi Arabiaโs elites were rounded up and detained in what was framed as a crackdown on corruption by the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Holding the high-level talks in Riyadh marks a key moment for the royal, who is known by his initials MBS, and his plan for Saudi Arabia to become a global power player.
Saudi Arabia has in recent years blitzed ahead with a worldwide PR drive to flip perceptions of a country which has sparked outrage over its human rights record.
Its reputation plunged further after the Crown Prince was accused of ordering the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident journalist who was strangled and dismembered by an assassination team in Turkey in 2018.
But posts from state social media accounts included the hashtag โcountry of peaceโ and calling the country the โcapital of world decisionsโ.
Being the centre of peace negotiations also offers the country a boost when Qatar has served as a nexus for the negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
Saudi Arabia has avoided taking sides in the Russian war in Ukraine, making it neutral ground for the talks to go ahead.
โWe know the crown prince, and I think itโd be a very good place to be,โ Trump said on Wednesday in the Oval Office.
Trump also spoke at an investment summit in Miami Beach hosted by Saudi Arabiaโs sovereign wealth fund in which he praised Riyadhโs role in the talks and called it a โvery special placeโ.
The Trump administration said on Tuesday it had agreed to hold further talks with Russia, during which the Moscow envoy insisted it would not tolerate Ukraine becoming a member of Nato.
The US President said he would likely meet Putin before the end of the month.