Russian FM, US Secretary to meet on sidelines of ASEAN forum in Malaysia

(MENAFN) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio are scheduled to meet Thursday on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Malaysia, the U.S. State Department has confirmed.

The meeting, listed on the State Department’s public agenda, is expected to take place at 6 p.m. local time (10 a.m. GMT) in Kuala Lumpur, where both diplomats are attending the annual gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

This will mark only the second in-person meeting between Lavrov and Rubio since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office in January. Their previous face-to-face encounter occurred in Saudi Arabia in February. The two have spoken multiple times by phone as part of ongoing efforts to restore diplomatic channels between Washington and Moscow.

"I can confirm that a meeting is in the works," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

The scheduled talks come amid renewed tensions between the U.S. and Russia, particularly over the ongoing war in Ukraine. Earlier this week, President Trump criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of lacking commitment to a peaceful resolution.

“We get a lot of bullsh*t thrown at us by Putin,” Trump said, adding, “He is very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless” in regard to ending the war.

In response, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Moscow remains unfazed by Trump’s remarks, noting that the U.S. president’s rhetoric is often “quite harsh in terms of the phrases that he uses.”

Russia maintains it is open to diplomatic negotiations with Ukraine, but insists any deal must be legally binding and address the underlying causes of the conflict.

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