Russia and Germany's Foreign Ministers Meet for the First Time Since 2022
Sergei Lavrov and Johann Wadephul held talks on the margins of the General Assembly, the first such meeting since before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It ran about twenty minutes in a room provided by the Russian side and ended with a handshake. Moscow says Berlin asked for it; the German side says Russia signalled willingness first. Mr Wadephul called on Russia “to abandon the dangerous path of escalation vis-à-vis Germany, Europe, and NATO”.
Twenty minutes and a handshake is the smallest possible unit of diplomacy, and both sides have an interest in reading it differently. Mr Wadephul’s own account was unusually direct: “It was an intense conversation. Of course, we did not reach agreement on key points. It was important to me to make it clear that Germany does not accept incidents such as the drone attack in Leipzig, and that this is an escalation that is unacceptable.” He added a warning: “We can defend ourselves, we can fight back. And that’s exactly what we’ll do.” Mr Lavrov’s account was deliberately flat — he had learned nothing his counterpart had not already said in public — and he then took the rostrum to call Germany Kyiv’s “main sponsor” and rule out any German or Japanese permanent seat on the Security Council. On the Black Sea, where Mr Wadephul pressed hardest, he said Russia had talked to India, Egypt and Turkey about safe navigation but that Ukraine required “separate discussions… not in the language of requests, but rather demands”. Watch whether a second meeting follows.