Russia’s Foreign Minister had a brief meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the Philippines on Thursday morning, where Moscow said continued American arms sales to its European allies, who use them to arm Ukraine, are “unacceptable”.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is at the East Asia Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Manila, the Philippines, on Thursday and overnight Eastern Time held a bilateral meeting on the side-lines with his Russian counterpart, the veteran diplomat Sergei Lavrov. One of the only senior Russian political figures whose long career pre-dates and has survived the Putin era, Lavrov has been Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2004 and a Russian ambassador since the Soviet era.
Rubio said in a statement after the meeting ended that he’d discussed “the U.S.-Russia relationship and the need to end the Russia-Ukraine war”, the typical boilerplate from the Department of State for such meetings. Russia had its own, namechecking the 2025 Trump-Alaska summit — as they always do — but added further detail, including claiming they had delivered a protest to Rubio on U.S. weapons exports.
While the United States has long ago ceased to donate weapons directly to Ukraine, citing the enormous cost to taxpayers, it sells large quantities to its European allies at full price, which are then free to donate them in turn to Ukraine themselves. Foreign Minister Lavrov “emphasized that pumping Ukraine with more weapons is unacceptable”, Russian state media expressed, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself further laboured the point in a statement in which it accused European states of trying to inflict a defeat on the Russian Federation:
When discussing Ukraine-related issues, Lavrov briefed his American counterpart on the real situation along the line of contact and stressed that further flooding the Kiev regime with weapons was unacceptable, along with the overall destructive policy pursued by European countries, which continue seeking to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia.
Russian state media further cited Grigory Karasin, the Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, who followed up the talks from Moscow to add remarks on “the destructive role played by Europe” in the Ukraine War, which he said has “become excessively entangled in its militaristic frenzy”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s personal spokesman Dmitry Peskov also blamed the member states of Europe for prolonging Russia’s invasion of Europe and emphasised that Moscow actually wants peace. He said: “We remain open to the negotiation process, but in a situation where the Kiev regime is being prodded by European capitals to continue the war, we, too, are pressing ahead with our special military operation”.
Speaking earlier at the East Asian leaders’ meeting, Rubio was focussed on China, building Washington-Beijing relations, but while reassuring longer-term allies in the region that any thaw with China wouldn’t come at their expense. He said: “These are the two most powerful economies in the world, two large militaries, two nuclear powers. We have to have a relationship with China. We want it to be as positive as it possibly can be, but that won’t come at the expense of our allies and our partners in the region, or our presence here either.”
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