U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has expressed his readiness to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers' gathering in the Philippines.
Rubio said that such a meeting could take place in Manila during events organized under the auspices of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
He made the remarks at a press conference while answering a question about whether he would be willing to meet with Lavrov or Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his visit to the Philippine capital.
"I’m not sure we’ve finalized that, but we’d be open to meeting with him, sure," Marco Rubio said.
The U.S. State Department press office had previously announced that the Secretary of State would be in Manila from July 19 to 23. His itinerary includes bilateral meetings with officials from a number of Asia-Pacific countries.
