3 minute read
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a meeting on the sidelines of the High-Level Week of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
The meeting took place a day after U.S. President Donald Trump called Moscow a "paper tiger" and said Ukraine could win back its seized land.
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Secretary reiterated President Trump’s call for the killing to stop and the need for Moscow to take meaningful steps toward a durable resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war,” the U.S. State Department said in a brief readout.
Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the sides “exchanged opinions on the Ukraine crisis settlement as a follow up to the understandings reached at the Russia-US summit in Anchorage.”
“The parties have reaffirmed mutual interest in the search for peaceful solutions,” it added.
Lavrov emphasized Russia’s “readiness to adhere to the line developed by the Russian and US leaders in Alaska, including to coordinate efforts with the US side to remove the root causes of the Ukraine conflict,” according to the Russian readout.
“The minister stressed the unacceptability of the schemes intended to protract the conflict promoted by Kiev and some European countries. The parties compared their positions on the entire bilateral agenda including the prospects of restoring their socio-political contacts. They have reaffirmed the importance of using the impetus given by Russian and US presidents to the process of normalizing bilateral relations. Both parties noted the need for activating efforts to restore regular functioning of their diplomatic missions. The sides have agreed to maintain constructive dialogue between the Russian and US foreign offices,” it added.
The ’paper tiger’ comments by Trump were rejected by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov had jokingly reacted that the country is more commonly compared to a bear.
“Russia is not a tiger. Russia is more often associated with a bear. There are no such things as ‘paper bears,’ and Russia is a real bear,” RT quoted Peskov as saying in an interview with RBK.