The talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the capital of the Philippines - Manila - have ended. The meeting lasted more than half an hour, a TASS correspondent reported.
Lavrov and Rubio, accompanied by their delegations, left the negotiation room shortly after 12:30 p.m. local time (07:30 Bulgarian time). The meeting took place according to a previously set schedule. Earlier it was reported that the next bilateral talks of the US Secretary of State within the framework of the program at the Philippine International Conference Center were scheduled for around 12:25 p.m. local time.
The parties planned to pay special attention to issues related to the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. As Lavrov stated yesterday, Moscow is proceeding from the understanding that Washington has not yet abandoned the proposals made at the meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska.
According to a diplomatic source quoted by TASS, the initiator of the meeting between Lavrov and Rubio was the American side.
Yesterday, within the framework of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Manila, Rubio met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.