The meeting scheduled for this week between the US Secretary of State, Mark Rubio, and the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has been postponed for the time being, reports BBC News citing CNN, which quotes sources.
It is not clear why, but one of the sources told CNN that Rubio and Lavrov, who spoke on the phone on Monday, have different expectations regarding the end of the war in Ukraine. It is also unclear how this could affect the schedule of the summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, but, according to CNN, Rubio and Lavrov might have another phone conversation during this week.
Rubio and Lavrov were supposed to hold talks ahead of the meeting in Budapest between the US President, Donald Trump, and the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.
Now, CNN writes, “President Donald Trump’s hopes for a quick meeting with Vladimir Putin may be in question”.
“You can’t postpone what was not agreed upon”, the Russian Foreign Ministry responded to the CNN publication about the postponement of the meeting between Lavrov and Rubio, writes Meduza Live.
“What some Western sources wrote yesterday was not confirmed by us. We didn’t even have a preliminary understanding of the terms or place of such a meeting”, said the deputy Russian foreign minister, Sergey Ryabkov.
He added that “the importance of such an event [the meeting] is very high” and that it requires careful preparation. “And that’s exactly what we’re doing. Yesterday, the minister had a phone conversation with the Secretary of State, dedicated to this subject”, Ryabkov specified.
Trump and Putin spoke on the phone last week, on the eve of the visit of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Washington. The White House leader expressed hope that the meeting with Putin could contribute to ending the war in Ukraine. The two agreed to organize a personal meeting in Budapest, preceded by direct negotiations between Rubio and Lavrov, notes BBC News.