🎙 Remarks and answers to media questions by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov following the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (Atlanta, October 30, 2026) ❓ Question: Have your contacts with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio taken place, or are they planned? Since we are in the United States, does the resumption of direct air links with the country remain on the agenda? Are there prospects for resolving the issue regarding our diplomatic property? 💬 Sergey Lavrov: We had a productive conversation, albeit a short one – for understandable reasons – because, as our host, he has many duties that do not allow him to spend much time on contacts outside the G20 framework. Nevertheless, the engagement did take place. We discussed both certain aspects of our bilateral relations and interaction at multilateral venues, including the #UN, the #G20 and #APEC, whose summit will be held very soon, in November, in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. I have said on numerous occasions that the Americans observe the rules of classical diplomacy, regardless of the tensions in our relations. There have always been – and there always will be – problems between Russia and the United States. Moreover, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio himself acknowledged at our first meeting in February 2025 in Riyadh, in the overwhelming majority of cases our national interests – America’s and Russia’s – will not coincide. However, when those interests do align, it would be foolish and wrong not to translate that alignment into the execution of joint, mutually beneficial projects. Conversely, when the interests of Russia and the United States do not coincide, it would be a crime to allow that divergence to escalate into an open clash, or indeed into any confrontation at all. Therefore – despite all our differences – the readiness and interest of the Americans in dialogue at the most varied levels, including between the presidents, the foreign ministers and a whole host of other channels, can, of course, only be welcomed. This serves as a good lesson for our European colleagues, who continue to adopt a position of what one might call an arrogant boycott. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who asked for a meeting with me in New York a month ago, issued a statement yesterday or this morning to the effect that he would tell Sergey Lavrov everything about the “aggressive war” and would never be photographed with him. I call this “family photo diplomacy”. If the main concern for them is how they look in the group portrait and who is standing next to them, then that says it all.