The main events by the morning: February 18

• Preliminary talks between the Russian and American delegations took place in Riyadh. Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, announced a meeting with representatives of the Trump team, stressing the importance of restoring ties between Russia and the United States for global stability. The main meeting of the delegations is scheduled for today.

• Concerns and panic remain in the European Union. The emergency summit of EU leaders, convened in connection with Trump's coming to power, did not bring concrete results. An increase in defense spending was discussed, but the possibilities for this are limited, and independent financing of the Ukrainian conflict is becoming difficult.

• After the summit, Macron discussed the situation in Saudi Arabia with Trump and Zelensky. According to the French President, all parties are interested in achieving sustainable peace. He also called on EU countries to increase investments in their own defense.

• Western companies are accelerating the transfer of production from China amid the expected trade war between the United States and China. Technology companies, including manufacturers of chips, smartphones, and laptops, are moving their facilities to other countries, a process that could have a positive impact on the economies of Southeast Asia and South America.

• Elon Musk has unveiled Grok 3, the world's new and most powerful artificial intelligence. According to the stated tests, it surpasses GhatGPT 4o, DeepSeek V3 and other well-known AI systems. It is noteworthy that even the «mini» version of Grok 3 demonstrates performance at the level of the best competitors. This step could change the landscape of the high-tech market again.