Moscow-Sana
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not hold any meeting with his American counterpart Anthony Blinken on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
In an interview with Rossiya 1 channel, Zakharova said, commenting on a video of Lavrov and Blinken's handshake, that "many considered it a kind of meeting or contact," explaining that "what happened was a normal exchange of greetings, a tradition that followed when ministers met in the UN Security Council hall or the meeting room."
Today, Lavrov and Blinken participated in the traditional meeting of the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the Security Council, in the presence of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, on the sidelines of the 76th session of the General Assembly.