Moscow says it would welcome Rubio-Lavrov meeting at ASEAN event

MOSCOW- The Kremlin said on Monday that it would welcome contacts between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Manila this week where members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are gathering.

Rubio, who is in Manila from July 19-23, said at the weekend he would be ready to meet Lavrov on the sidelines of ASEAN-related events, but that he was not sure if such a meeting had been finalized.

Asked on Monday about the possibility of such a meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated Moscow was in favor of the two top diplomats meeting.

"Contacts through the ministries of foreign affairs and diplomatic channels are of course largely of a technical nature, but if there were to be contact at the level of foreign ministers, we would certainly welcome it," Peskov told reporters.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, told the RIA state news agency later on Monday that officials were working on setting up a possible meeting between Lavrov and Rubio on the sidelines of the ASEAN events.

Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Editing by Andrew Osborn/Reuters