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Sunday, 27 September 2026dailybeirut.com
World
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov held direct talks in New York, marking the first bilateral meeting between their foreign ministers since before the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov held direct talks in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, in the first bilateral meeting between the two countries' foreign ministers since before the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Lavrov and Wadephul discussed bilateral relations and the war in Ukraine, at a time when relations between Moscow and Berlin are experiencing increasing tension.
During the meeting, Wadephul called on Russia to do everything in its power to reach an agreement on grain exports through the Black Sea, amid a decline in Russian and Ukrainian export traffic through the maritime corridor in recent months.
Reuters quoted a source in the German delegation as saying that Wadephul stressed the importance of acting quickly in light of the food shortages facing several countries, especially in the Global South, affirming the necessity for all parties to participate constructively.
The German minister added that reaching a practical solution could pave the way for taking other concrete steps.
Wadephul also called on Moscow to abandon what he described as a "path of escalation" against Germany, Europe, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
He affirmed that incidents attributed by Berlin to Russia and hybrid attacks would not change Germany's supportive stance toward Ukraine.
Relations between the two countries became more strained in recent weeks following a drone incident at Leipzig/Halle Airport in eastern Germany last August, where the German government blamed Russia for attempting an attack, while the Russian Embassy in Berlin rejected the accusations, describing them as a fabricated provocation.
The meeting came after years of frozen bilateral contacts at the level of foreign ministers, despite officials from both countries participating in multiple international meetings during that period.
