Comments and answers to the media questions of the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, following the meeting of the G20 Foreign Ministers (Atlanta, October 30, 2026) Question: Did your contacts with the American Secretary of State Marco Rubio take place, or are they planned? Since we are in the United States, does the renewal of direct air connections with the country remain on the agenda? Are there any chances of resolving the issue regarding our diplomatic property? Sergey Lavrov: We had a fruitful conversation, even if it was short - for understandable reasons - because as our host, he has many obligations that do not allow him to spend much time in contacts outside the G20 framework. Nevertheless, the engagement did take place. We have discussed both certain aspects of our bilateral relations and interaction in multilateral venues, including and whose summit will be held very soon, in November, in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. I have said on many occasions that the Americans observe the rules of classical diplomacy, regardless of the tensions in our relationship. There have always been - and always will be - problems between Russia and the United States. Moreover, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio himself admitted at our first meeting in February 2025 in Riyadh, in the vast majority of cases our national interests -. America and Russia - will not overlap. However, when these interests do align, it would be foolish and wrong not to translate that alignment into the execution of joint, mutually beneficial projects. Conversely, when the interests of Russia and the United States do not coincide, it would be a crime to allow this gap to escalate into open conflict, or indeed any conflict at all.

Comments and answers to the media questions of the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, following the meeting of the G20 Foreign Ministers (Atlanta, October 30, 2026) Question: Did your contacts with the American Secretary of State Marco Rubio take place, or are they planned? Since we are in the United States, does the renewal of direct air connections with the country remain on the agenda? Are there any chances of resolving the issue regarding our diplomatic property? Sergey Lavrov: We had a fruitful conversation, even if it was short - for understandable reasons - because as our host, he has many obligations that do not allow him to spend much time in contacts outside the G20 framework. Nevertheless, the engagement did take place. We have discussed both certain aspects of our bilateral relations and interaction in multilateral venues, including and whose summit will be held very soon, in November, in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. I have said on many occasions that the Americans observe the rules of classical diplomacy, regardless of the tensions in our relationship. There have always been - and always will be - problems between Russia and the United States. Moreover, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio himself admitted at our first meeting in February 2025 in Riyadh, in the vast majority of cases our national interests -. America and Russia - will not overlap. However, when these interests do align, it would be foolish and wrong not to translate that alignment into the execution of joint, mutually beneficial projects. Conversely, when the interests of Russia and the United States do not coincide, it would be a crime to allow this gap to escalate into open conflict, or indeed any conflict at all.