Overview
- U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergej Lavrov met briefly in Manila to restart official contacts and discuss the Ukraine conflict.
- Moscow issued a communique saying Lavrov called any further arms shipments to Ukraine unacceptable and reaffirmed Russia's readiness for a political settlement based on Anchorage proposals.
- Both sides agreed to restore some functional channels, including normalizing diplomatic missions and resuming Roscosmos–NASA and interparliamentary and cultural exchanges.
- The U.S. response was guarded with Rubio declining to take questions from journalists and no new U.S. disclosures on Gulf security or allegations of Russian assistance to Iranian strikes.
- Russia's reference to the Anchorage meeting between Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump signals Moscow wants future talks framed by that earlier set of principles and could limit the scope of Western military support for Kyiv.