Chancellor Lavrov Reveals Details Of Brief Meeting With Blinken

On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov offered details of his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken after the summit of the Group of Twenty (G20) in New Delhi.

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"We only talked about our countries' security and the armed conflict in Ukraine, nothing more," Lavrov said in an interview with Russian public TV. However, he stressed that the conversation with Blinken was constructive.

"It was a civilized conversation," Lavrov said, lamenting that the United States has broken regular communications with Russia. “That’s why a simple talk between an American and a Russian officer on the margins of a Summit becomes extraordinary,” he pointed out.

According to the White House, Blinken demanded from Lavrov at that meeting that Russia suspend its military operation in Ukraine and resume its participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as New START.

Signed in 2010 by former presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, this treaty limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads that Russia and the U.S. can deploy and gives each country the power to inspect the other.

Previously, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed that he sought to keep the treaty in force, despite the hostile rhetoric of the U.S. over the armed conflict in Ukraine.

However, he decided to withdraw Russia from the deal a day after U.S. President Joe Biden traveled to Ukraine to demonstrate his support for the Kyv army in the face of the Russian military operation.

"We remain willing to talk about strategic arms limitations at any time with Russia, whatever else happens in the world or our relationship," Blinken stated.