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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Manila Thursday morning.
Neither answered questions from reporters about whether Russia was supporting Iran by helping to target US troops, or whether Moscow plans to halt its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A readout from the State Department later confirmed the two envoys discussed “the US-Russia relationship and the need to end the Russia-Ukraine war.”
On Telegram, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova shared that Lavrov briefed Rubio on the situation along the front lines of the Ukraine war, and “emphasized the inadmissibility of further arming the Kyiv regime.”
Despite this, Lavrov confirmed that Russia was prepared for “a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict,” Zakharova said.
Prior to the Thursday meeting, Rubio was asked by a reporter whether he planned to press Lavrov on Ukraine during their meeting.
“Obviously the war in Ukraine has in many ways impeded the ability of Russia and the United States to find areas of agreement on other topics, that doesn’t mean we won’t seek to find other areas of potential cooperation,” he said.
Asked what role the US is playing in reaching an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, given talks have dissipated, Rubio said: “Perhaps there are now new conditions in place that will allow that conversation to happen.”
For context: On the campaign trail in 2023 and 2024, US President Donald Trump said on dozens of occasions that he would end the war in Ukraine either within 24 hours of his return to the White House or even sooner than that.
More than 500 days into his second term in office, that war still rages with peace talks making little progress.
