Whether there will be further talks depends largely on Russia, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadeful said after meeting his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York today, DPA reported.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and was their first bilateral meeting since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022. The conversation lasted a little more than 20 minutes and ended with a handshake between the two ministers.
Lavrov said he did not see any progress after the talks with Wadeful. He said he had not "heard anything different" from what Berlin has been saying publicly every day. The Russian minister noted that Germany requested the meeting yesterday, "at the last minute". According to him, the conversation left him with "the impression that there was a hidden message: "I came to you, I showed condescension to you".
Lavrov told DPA that he had the impression that Vaddeful expected Russia to make concessions on the issues of Ukraine and shipping in the Black Sea in exchange for the meeting.
For his part, Vaddeful said that after the conversation with Lavrov, deep disagreements remained over efforts to end the war in Ukraine. "It was an intense conversation. Of course, we did not reach an agreement on key issues," the minister said. He explained that he had "suggested de-escalation, especially with regard to the situation in Ukraine, but this was not understood".
The German minister stressed that it was important for him to make it clear that Berlin "does not accept actions like the drone incident in Leipzig and that this is an escalation that is unacceptable". He added that he had warned Russia not to continue down this path. "We can defend ourselves, we can stand our ground and we will do so," Wadeful said.
The German government holds Russia responsible for the incident with an unexploded drone carrying explosives at Leipzig airport. Moscow denies any responsibility for what happened.
"If Russia is ready for a constructive dialogue and, above all, if it is ready to stop the war against Ukraine, then negotiations will certainly be possible", said Vaddeful.
He said that many of his colleagues had urged him to remain open to talks with Russia, stressing that "at some point direct negotiations should be resumed". Vaddeful also stressed that he did not want Europeans to leave all contacts with Russia entirely in the hands of the United States.
According to him, there are categorical differences between the positions of Berlin and Moscow, "but they also need to be discussed", since "even during the Cold War, the dialogue did not stop". "I thought it was right at this point to seek the first opportunity for an exchange of views," he said.
Vadeful noted that the principle that Ukraine should not be discussed without the participation of the country itself remains in force. "I am not negotiating about Ukraine. That is the task of the Ukrainians themselves. I call on Russia to talk to Ukraine," the German foreign minister said.