At the United Nations General Assembly next week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be in the same city for the third time in three months, but there are currently no plans for the two diplomats to meet. said a senior administration official. But US State Department spokesman Ned Price would not rule out a meeting if it could fuel efforts to return Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, two Americans illegally detained in Russia. “What I can say is that we will take every step that we think will help move the process forward. If a high-level intervention with a senior Russian official would help us get one step closer to seeing the release of Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner, we would not hesitate to do that,” Price said Thursday, noting that the negotiation process with The Russian government “definitely didn’t move as quickly as we would have liked.” Lavrov and Blinken are likely to be in the same room for the UN Security Council meeting next week. But being in the same room doesn’t guarantee instant contact — although it could mean awkwardly avoiding each other. Earlier in the week, Price reiterated that US President Joe Biden’s administration does not believe it can do business as usual with the Russians, but the Biden administration has emphasized getting Americans home as public pressure has mounted . Price would not say whether management believes a meeting with Lavrov and Blinken could move the ball forward. Blinken spoke to Lavrov on the phone in late July for the first time since Russia’s war in Ukraine began on February 24 and “pressed the Kremlin to accept the substantive proposal we made to release Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner.” the top American diplomat said at the time. Blinken and Lavrov were in the same cities for international meetings just weeks before that phone call and just weeks after — in Bali in early July and Cambodia in early August — but Blinken and Lavrov did not meet. In Cambodia, they were just seats away from each other for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers meeting and attended the same dinner but did not speak at the dinner, CNN reported at the time. The Biden administration has repeatedly said it will not engage in diplomacy with Russia unless it believes it can be productive, and Russia has signaled no desire to engage diplomatically. “We have seen no signs, our Ukrainian partners have seen no signs, our European allies and partners who have been in contact with senior Russian officials have seen no signs that the Russians are ready to negotiate, ready to engage in this dialogue.” , he added. repeated this week. Biden is scheduled to meet with the Griner and Whelan families today at the White House.
