Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio may hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. This was reported on 19 September by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. She confirmed that the issue of Ukraine will remain one of the key topics of any possible talks. The high-level general debates at the UN begin on 22 September, and that is expected to be the busiest phase for behind-the-scenes contacts.
Zakharova spoke about preparations for the meeting in an interview with the Russian news agency TASS. According to her, scheduling of the Russian foreign minister's working meetings on the sidelines of the General Assembly is currently underway.
"We are now working on the schedule of working meetings on the sidelines of the General Assembly. There will be many meetings... and such a meeting is also being organized," Zakharova said.
The high-level general debates involving heads of state and government, as well as foreign ministers, will take place at the UN headquarters in New York on 22-26 and 28 September. Lavrov will head the Russian delegation at the session.
Sanctions pressure on Russia is intensifying ahead of the summit
The announced meeting between Lavrov and Rubio comes amid escalating disputes over sanctions policy toward Moscow. The European Union still cannot agree on extending personal restrictions because of the position of some countries, while a new package of tough sanctions against Russia has just come into effect in Washington.
The issue of sanctions will most likely be one of the background storylines of the talks in New York, since the main diplomatic tension between the West and Moscow currently centers on it.
Earlier, Informator reported that the EU has offered France a compromise regarding Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, from whom they want to lift some restrictions, despite the fact that ambassadors of 27 countries twice failed to agree on extending the sanctions. We also wrote that Trump signed Graham’s law on hellish sanctions against Russia, which allows imposing tariffs of up to 100% for countries that buy Russian oil and gas.
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