Moscow says it would welcome possible meeting between top diplomats Lavrov, US’ Rubio

The Kremlin would welcome talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said a Kremlin spokesperson on Monday.

“If there is contact at the level of the foreign ministers, we would only welcome it,” Dmitry Peskov told a Moscow press briefing.

Contacts between the Russian Foreign Ministry and US State Department are continuing at a technical level, while no recent direct contacts have taken place through the presidential administrations, he added.

“On the line of the foreign ministries, on the line of the diplomatic agencies, contacts, of course, are taking place, but they are rather technical in nature,” he said.

At the same time, Peskov said there had been no recent direct contacts between Moscow and Washington.

“No, there have been no contacts through our channel in recent days,” he said.

On relations with Europe, Peskov said Russia had not seen any practical steps from Germany toward restoring political dialogue despite public debate on the issue.

“We hear many statements on this subject, we hear many discussions among European politicians, including in Germany. Nevertheless, in practical terms, this is not reflected in the actual policies of these countries,” he said.

Peskov reiterated that Russia remains open to dialogue with European countries.

“Russia continues to be open to dialogue. We have never been the initiators of curtailing relations,” he said.

He added that Moscow would take into account its previous experience when relations with European countries are eventually restored.

“The experience we have gained will, of course, always be taken into account when dialogue is resumed,” Peskov said.

Relations between Russian and most European states have been cool since the start of the Ukraine conflict over four years ago, with Russian-US ties also marked by tensions, though far less since US President Donald Trump returned for a second term.