No Blinken-Lavrov Meeting Planned For G20 Ministerial

Russian state news agency TASS has reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will not hold talks on the sidelines of this week's G20 ministerial in Bali, Indonesia.

• Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS: "No, there are no such plans" for a meeting.
• State Department spox Ned Price also suggested that a meeting was not on the agenda: “We are much less concerned about whom he meets with and much more concerned with the messages that are imparted during those meetings.”
• There have been no in-person meetings between high-level Biden administration and Russia officials conducted via official diplomatic channels since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• Defence Minister Lloyd Austin spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in May, their first call since the war began.
• According to the Brookings Institution, "both Biden and the Kremlin have recently expressed a desire to resume the U.S.-Russia dialogue on strategic stability at some point," but that is unlikely to begin on Thursday.
• The G-20 foreign ministerial is scheduled to take place on 7-8 July with meetings planned throughout both days. A full agenda can be found on the G-20 website: https://g20.org/