US and Russia hold talks on Ukraine, Syria, and Iran on ASEAN sidelines
Al Jazeera
Rubio and Lavrov ‘confirmed their mutual desire to find peaceful solutions to conflicts’, Russian Foreign Ministry says.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio have held rare face-to-face talks on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Malaysia, discussing the war in Ukraine, as well as developments in Iran and Syria, as Moscow-Washington, DC relations navigate rocky terrain.
“A substantive and frank exchange of views took place on the settlement of the situation around Ukraine, the situation around Iran and Syria, as well as a number of other international issues,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement following the meeting on Thursday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Both sides reportedly expressed interest in easing tensions and resuming dialogue in areas beyond the battlefield.
Lavrov and Rubio “confirmed their mutual desire to find peaceful solutions to conflicts, restore Russian-American economic and humanitarian cooperation, and facilitate unimpeded contacts between the societies of the two countries”, the ministry added.
The Russian side described the meeting as constructive, saying dialogue between Moscow and Washington would continue.
