MANILA, Philippines (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet Thursday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Philippines, where he’s expected to renew the prospect of the U.S. trying to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.The meeting between Rubio and Lavrov is slated to occur on the sidelines of a gathering by Southeast Asian foreign ministers, among the most high-profile side meetings the region’s top diplomats were having at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations event in Manila.U.S. efforts to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war have dropped off as indirect talks stalled and the Iran war took center stage. Renewed strikes by Washington and Tehran have been intensifying after an interim ceasefire deal collapsed. Rubio told reporters in Manila on Wednesday that he plans to raise the conflict in Ukraine with Lavrov, saying that the U.S. remained open to playing a role in ending the conflict “if that opportunity presents itself.”
He acknowledged that those efforts have “kind of fallen off a little bit over the last few months” but said the meeting would explore whether there’s an opportunity to renew talks.“We have to have a relationship with the Russian government, even though we have areas of disagreement,” Rubio said, noting that they are two largest nuclear-armed countries.
