Sergey Lavrov and Anthony Blinken met on the sidelines of the Arctic Council in Reykavik.
We can safely say that the meeting of the heads of the foreign affairs agencies of Russia and the United States even overshadowed the main event.
A small hall could not accommodate all interested journalists, so only some Russian media, American and Icelandic, were allowed to enter. The protocol filming lasted only a few minutes. However, the negotiations themselves lasted about two hours.
Instead of shaking hands, Sergey Lavrov and Anthony Blinken greet each other, touching their elbows, as has become customary due to coronavirus restrictions.
The American side is considered to be the host, so the Secretary of State invites the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry to the table.
This is their first face-to-face meeting since the start of the new presidential administration in the United States. Prior to that, we communicated only by phone. But not so much COVID is to blame, as the consistent course of the United States towards confrontation with Russia.
The Secretary of State expressed his readiness for cooperation, but with threatening notes inherent in modern US diplomacy.
The Russian diplomat noted a serious discrepancy in the assessment of the international situation and yet, he called the negotiations with Blinken constructive.
The diplomats discussed the situation in Syria and Afghanistan, the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea, the crisis between Armenia and Azerbaijan, touched upon the functioning of the Russian diplomatic mission in the United States and the American one in Russia.
Whether they discussed Nord Stream 2 is unknown, but immediately after the talks, the State Department issued a written statement by Blinken, in which the Secretary of State calls the sanctions against the Swiss operator company not in line with US interests.
As a result of the talks, as Lavrov said, the presidents of Russia and the United States will be presented with proposals to strengthen the dialogue on strategic stability. All factors will be taken into account: nuclear and non-nuclear, offensive and defensive. This is exactly what goes beyond bilateral relations and worries the whole world.
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