By Antoni Slodkowski and Tom Balmforth
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Russia and Germany’s foreign ministers met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Saturday, officials from both sides said, in the first such talks since before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Russia’s Sergei Lavrov and Germany’s Johann Wadephul discussed bilateral relations and the war in Ukraine, the Russian foreign ministry said.
Wadephul urged Russia to do “everything possible to reach an agreement on grain exports via the Black Sea”, a German delegation source said.
Russian and Ukrainian exports via the Black Sea have been sharply curtailed in recent months as Kyiv and Moscow targeted each other’s port infrastructure and vessels. Ukraine and its allies are now pushing to secure a limited ceasefire in the Black Sea and on strikes on energy infrastructure.
Russia has not given any clear indication publicly that it supports these initiatives.
Wadephul told Lavrov, “Time is of the essence: given the food shortages in many countries — particularly in the Global South — all parties must be willing to engage constructively,” the German delegation source said.
The German minister also told Lavrov that “a pragmatic solution could pave the way for further concrete steps”, the source said.
BILATERAL TIES IN DEEP FREEZE
Relations between Moscow and Berlin, a close ally of Ukraine, have been in deep freeze since the Russian invasion, and tensions escalated further after a drone incident at Leipzig/Halle Airport in eastern Germany in August.
The German government said this month it had concluded that Russia was responsible for that attempted drone attack. It ordered a series of measures in response, including the closure of a consulate and a Russian cultural centre in Berlin.
The Russian embassy in Berlin has dismissed these allegations as “fabricated provocation” and as “a new wave of anti-Russian hysteria in Germany”.
Wadephul used the talks to call on Russia “to abandon the dangerous path of escalation vis-à-vis Germany, Europe, and NATO”, according to the delegation source.
Wadephul said incidents such as the attempted attack in Leipzig or further hybrid attacks would not shake Germany’s resolve to support Ukraine, according to delegation sources.
(Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski and Tom Balmforth at the United Nations, and Marina Bobrova in Moscow; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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