A senior State Department official told reporters in a background briefing midday today, that Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will meet in person in Geneva this Friday, Jan. 21, after Blinken’s discussions in Kiev on Jan. 19, and Berlin on Jan. 20. The two had spoken by telephone earlier this morning, and “it was in the context of that conversation that the two decided it would be useful for them to meet in person,” the official stated.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed to Rossiya-1 TV Channel later in the day that “active work is underway on such a meeting between the heads of the Russian and U.S. diplomatic agencies.”
Russian officials have been saying that they hoped to receive a written response this week to the two draft treaties on security guarantees which Russia had discussed with U.S. and NATO officials last week. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had reiterated yesterday that “we hope that, as our American counterparts have already mentioned, they will be able to formulate something in writing this week.” Lavrov likewise told reporters yesterday that Russia “firmly count[ed]” on receiving the “concrete responses promised to us.... There is reason to believe that some contacts on this track will take place in the next few days.”
