Rubio, Lavrov Hold First Face-to-Face Meeting in Months at ASEAN Summit
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a closed-door meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Manila on July 23, marking their first in-person talks in months.
According to statements from both sides, discussions focused on the war in Ukraine, diplomatic relations, and maintaining communication channels. Rubio said any future peace effort would require “new ideas” acceptable to all parties, while reiterating President Donald Trump’s view that the conflict should come to an end through diplomacy.
Lavrov, meanwhile, repeated Russia’s opposition to continued Western military assistance to Ukraine and said both countries discussed restoring normal diplomatic operations and keeping direct communication channels open.
Neither side announced any concrete agreements, and officials indicated that no major breakthrough was achieved during the approximately 30-minute meeting.