U.S. and Russia’s top diplomats meet for the first time since the Ukraine war began

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov met briefly on the sidelines of a meeting of the Group of 20 nations in India. It’s the first face-to-face interaction between the countries’ two top diplomats since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Relations between the United States and Russia have collapsed over that war, with the U.S. slapping thousands of sanctions on Russia, while militarily, economically and diplomatically supporting Ukraine.

According to a senior State Department official, the meeting lasted less than 10 minutes. The official said that Blinken made three points to his Russian counterpart: that U.S. support for Ukraine would continue “for as long as it takes”; that Russia should rejoin the New START nuclear arms control treaty that it recently suspended participation from; and that he pressed Russia to release Paul Whelan, an imprisoned U.S. citizen.

The U.S. recently announced another large tranche of weapons to Ukraine, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who was recently in Ukraine, pledged more U.S. economic aid.

Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended Russia’s participation in the New START treaty last month, shortly before the year mark of the invasion. It is the last remaining arms control treaty between the two nuclear powers.

The last time Blinken and Lavrov met was in Geneva in January 2022, in the month leading up to Russia’s invasion.

India, which holds the rotating chair of the G-20 this year, has hoped the war in Ukraine will not dominate proceedings at the G-20 meetings and instead wants it to focus on some of the issues more pertinent to the Global South such as climate change, food security, inflation and debt relief.

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