Piazza di'an, on my mind, the war in Ukraine and global diplomacy.

Last week marked the year anniversary of Russia's invasion of its neighbor,

Preston Biden traveled to Kiev, rededicating support for Preston Zelensky and the Ukrainian people.

But the focus on the conflict didn't end there.

This week, the US told China to stay out of it and mourned of sanctions if the Chinese government sends weaponry to the Russian army.

And high-level Russian and American diplomats met briefly at the G20 in India for the first time since the war began.

David Rothkoff is a foreign policy expert who's worked on international affairs inside and outside of government.

He joined me to talk about the US role in Ukraine and how the war is affecting a relationship with China.

David, the Secretary of State met with Russia's foreign minister this week at the G20.

What came out of that meeting?

I'm not sure that a great deal came out of the meeting. There was an effort to identify some issues and to maintain contact.

And I think most Americans would be a bit surprised at the degree to which the US is staying in touch with Russia,

trying to define what the red lines are in this Ukraine context, trying to avoid crossing them.

So Secretary Blinken again mentioned Paul Whirlin and urged Russia to return to the start treaty.

And Russia continues to lash out at everybody.

And I just wonder how useful those kinds of meetings really are.

Well, look, I think there's a long history of maintaining contact with our adversaries,

even at low points in the relationship. We did that through a South Cold War,

and it becomes a way to diffuse things when they get particularly extreme.

Candidly, I wish we were doing more of it with China than we are right now.

And by the way, a lot of the responsibility for that is on China.

But having said that, a lot of diplomacy is Kabuki theater. People say formulated phrases

...