Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Reykjavik on May 19, on the sidelines of the official program of the Arctic Council’s ministerial meeting. They made brief opening comments to the assembled press.
“It’s also no secret that we have our differences,” Blinken said after his brief welcome. “When it comes to those differences, as President Biden has also shared with President Putin, if Russia acts aggressively against us, our partners, our allies, we’ll respond,” Blinken said. “And President Biden has demonstrated that in both word and deed, not for purposes of escalation, not to seek conflict, but to defend our interests.”
