US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a brief conversation on Thursday at a meeting of high-ranking diplomats from the "Group of Twenty" as part of the first high-level meeting between the two countries in several months, writes UNN with reference to AP.
US officials said Blinken and Laurel spoke for about 10 minutes on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in New Delhi. The brief meeting took place against the backdrop of a sharp deterioration in relations between Washington and Moscow and a sharp rise in tensions over Russia's war with Ukraine.
A senior U.S. official said Blinken used the discussion to make three points to Laurel: The U.S. will support Ukraine in the conflict until the war ends, that Russia should reverse its decision to suspend participation in the new nuclear treaty and that Moscow should release the detained American. Paul Whelan.
The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, also said that Blinken, in his conversation with Lavrov, "dispelled" any suggestion that US support for Ukraine was wavering.
The interlocutor of the publication refused to give a description of Lavrov's reaction, but said that Blinken did not get the impression that there will be any changes in Russia's behavior in the near future.
Russia did not immediately comment on the substance of the conversation, but Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Blinken had requested a meeting with Lavrov.
It was their first contact since last summer, when Blinken called Laurel about a U.S. offer for Russia to release Whelan and previously detained WNBA star Brittney Griner. Griner was later released in exchange for jailed Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, but Whelan remains in Russian custody after being accused of espionage.
Blinken and Laurel last met in person in Geneva, Switzerland, in January 2022, on the eve of the Russian invasion.