{"id":1526963,"date":"2026-07-23T03:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T08:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1526963"},"modified":"2026-07-23T04:43:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:43:45","slug":"rubio-meets-russias-lavrov-in-manila-to-try-to-revive-prospect-of-us-helping-end-war-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1526963","title":{"rendered":"Rubio meets Russia’s Lavrov in Manila to try to revive prospect of US helping end war in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends the 33rd ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines Thursday, July 23, 2026. (Ezra Acayan\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>MANILA, Philippines (AP) \u2014 U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday in the Philippines for talks where he was expected to renew the prospect of the U.S. trying to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The U.S. State Department offered few details about the meeting on the sidelines of an annual gathering by foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila. \u201cThey discussed the U.S.-Russia relationship and the need to end the Russia-Ukraine war,\u201d a State Department spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Lavrov largely ignored questions from reporters but the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow said he emphasized to Rubio \u201cthe unacceptability of further arming\u201d Ukraine and \u201cthe destabilizing policies of European countries, which continue to seek a \u2018strategic defeat\u2019 for Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lavrov reiterated Russia\u2019s readiness for \u201ca political and diplomatic resolution of the conflict\u201d and commitment to agreements reached at a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska last year, the Russian ministry said.<\/p>\n

The two leaders also discussed \u201cthe situation in the Persian Gulf,\u201d the resumption of contacts between NASA and Russia\u2019s space agency Roscosmos and the operation of embassies on both sides, the ministry said.<\/p>\n

ASEAN talks focused on international conflicts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three days of closed-door talks that started Tuesday have focused on the resurgent war in the Middle East, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and, closer to home, the South China Sea, where a new clash flared Thursday.<\/p>\n

U.S. efforts to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war have dropped off as indirect talks stalled and the Iran war took center stage. Renewed strikes by Washington and Tehran have been intensifying after an interim ceasefire deal collapsed.<\/p>\n

Rubio told reporters in Manila on Wednesday that he planned to raise the conflict in Ukraine with Lavrov, saying that the U.S. remained open to playing a role in ending the conflict \u201cif that opportunity presents itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that those efforts have \u201ckind of fallen off a little bit over the last few months\u201d but said the meeting would explore whether there\u2019s an opportunity to renew talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to have a relationship with the Russian government, even though we have areas of disagreement,\u201d Rubio said, noting they are the two largest nuclear-armed countries.<\/p>\n

Lavrov, speaking to reporters earlier, said he would ask Rubio about the latest statements by Trump predicting that a settlement is getting close.<\/p>\n

Expectations for renewed discussions about ending the war comes as Ukraine has made significant progress this year but a rift between defense leaders has threatened to derail its efforts. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has undertaken a major government reshuffle, including its top military brass.<\/p>\n

But Ukraine would not be the only issue on the table. Rubio said he would use the meeting to find other areas of potential cooperation between the U.S. and Russia \u2014 the kind of wide-ranging agenda that the ministers have touched on in their huddles around the ASEAN meeting.<\/p>\n

China defends maritime military actions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong renewed her country’s alarm over the Chinese navy\u2019s recent test-launch of a missile from a nuclear-powered submarine in the region, which she said \u201ccame with too little information and notification, including to the Philippines \u2014 over which the missile flew \u2014 and Pacific nations, near where the missile landed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt comes in the context of a rapid military build-up of China\u2019s nuclear arsenal without the transparency or reassurance the region expects,\u201d Wong told a university forum in Manila on Thursday. \u201cThis is why Australia has described the test as provocative and destabilizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

China has defended its actions, saying the launch was part of annual exercises and that it gave countries in the area appropriate notice in advance.<\/p>\n

Rubio also had a long meeting Wednesday with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and separately with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.<\/p>\n

Rubio told reporters he and Wang discussed a new altercation this week between Chinese and Filipino forces in a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety. Rubio called the incident \u201cescalatory.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose need to be managed very carefully, because obviously, a conflict \u2014 be it economic or otherwise \u2014 between the U.S. and China would have a dramatic global impact,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n

In Beijing, the Chinese coast guard said it took necessary measures, including monitoring and blocking, to drive away two Philippine ships that disregarded repeated warnings from the Chinese side in a confrontation on Thursday.<\/p>\n

China said its operations were professional and lawful and urged the Philippines to stop its provocative actions infringing on Chinese territory. Philippine officials did not immediately issue a comment.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has repeatedly criticized China\u2019s assertive actions in the South China Sea to the disadvantage of smaller claimant countries like the Philippines, Washington\u2019s oldest treaty ally in Asia. Taiwan and ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have also been involved in the often-tense territorial standoffs.<\/p>\n

ASEAN foreign ministers discussed the territorial disputes Tuesday, welcoming progress in yearslong negotiations between China and their regional bloc on a proposed non-aggression pact that both sides hope to conclude this year, according to a draft of a joint communiqu\u00e9 seen by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

The so-called code of conduct aims to prevent a major conflict in the disputed waters, a key global trade route, that could draw in the United States.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press journalists Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, Haruka Nuga in Bangkok and Fu Ting in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday in the Philippines for talks where he was expected to renew the prospect of the U.S. trying to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1526964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1502,1449,1504],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1526963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-heads","category-abc-political-news","category-abc-world-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-25 03:37:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1526963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1526972,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526963\/revisions\/1526972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1526964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1526963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1526963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1526963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}