Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has invited U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to participate in ministerial meetings within the framework of the United Nations Security Council summit, chaired by Russia in April.
»I know that the minister (Lavrov) has invited the heads of the Foreign Affairs departments, the State Department and others to participate in the meetings he will chair,» said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin.
However, Pankin said he did not know at the moment whether the top diplomatic representatives of Russia and the United States will hold a meeting on the sidelines of the UN summit. I don’t know if it will happen,» he said, according to the TASS news agency.
Russia’s representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, confirmed earlier in the day that Lavrov had received the necessary visa to travel to New York, where the UN headquarters is located.
The foreign minister plans to attend the Security Council meeting scheduled for Monday and Tuesday next week and has already confirmed at least one meeting on the sidelines of the summit with UN Secretary General António Guterres.
Russian officials have defended earlier Wednesday that the United States »is obliged» to issue visas also to Russian journalists planning to cover the Security Council meeting.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
