Lavrov Confirms Meeting With Rubio to Discuss Ukraine and Iran

They will address the Ukrainian conflict and the war on Iran.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed that he will meet Thursday with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss the conflicts in Ukraine and Iran.

“We saw each other briefly yesterday at the reception and confirmed it,” he said in Manila, where both diplomats are attending a ministerial meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Lavrov said Moscow believes that, for the time being, the United States has not abandoned the proposals put forward during the August 2025 summit in Alaska, where Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump met.

Although those proposals have not been made public, the Western press reported that Trump was willing to accept Russia retaining all of the Donbas, provided that it agreed to halt the fighting in Ukraine.

In recent months Rubio has taken a much more critical stance toward Russia’s military campaign, arguing that it has been a “strategic failure” and that Russia has no chance of winning the war.

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During the news conference in Manila, Lavrov also said he will ask Rubio about Trump’s recent statements that a settlement in Ukraine is near.

Peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, with U.S. mediation, have been stalled since last February, when Washington began its bombing campaign against Iran.

Since then, Ukrainian forces have stepped up attacks on Russia’s rear areas, prompting Moscow to intensify its bombardments of Kiev and the Black Sea port of Odesa.

Regarding Iran, Lavrov said the continuation of hostilities “is not in the interests of the United States or Iran.” “We want all of this to end because it has an impact on the global economy,” he stressed.

On Monday, the Kremlin welcomed preparations for the meeting between Lavrov and Rubio, whose most recent meeting took place in September 2025 in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

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