New Delhi: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting in Delhi on Thursday. This is the first high-level contact between the two countries since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict a year back.
The meeting gains significance as high-level engagements between the United States and Russia have become rare since the start of the conflict last February.
According to reports, the exchange lasted about 10 minutes and Blinken conveyed to Lavrov that the US would continue to support Ukraine.
"Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked for contact with Foreign Minister Lavrov, during the second session of the G20 meet," Russian spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
She further said that they had the "contact but there were no talks or a full-fledged meeting".
According to a State Department official, Blinken called on Russia to release wrongfully detained American Paul Whelan and said that the US “had put a proposal on the table and that they should accept it.”
Notably, the brief engagement comes over a week after Russia suspended participation in the New START nuclear treaty with the US.
It is to be noted that the last time Blinken and Lavrov met in person was in Geneva last January, just weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine. Blinken and Lavrov were both present at several meetings together over the last one year, but had not spoken with each other on those occasions.
Meanwhile, speaking at the G20 meeting, Blinken said, “We must continue to call on Russia to end its war of aggression and withdraw from Ukraine for the sake of international peace and economic stability.” “Unfortunately, this meeting has again been marred by Russia's unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine,” he added.
Notably, the interaction took place as the US and its Western allies have been increasing pressure on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.