UK Foreign Secretary Raab Requests Meeting With Russia FM Lavrov - Source

BANGKOK (Sputnik) – UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has requested a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the ongoing ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting but the talks did not take place because London had stopped communicating, a source said on Thursday.

"The head of the UK Foreign Office has requested a meeting with Lavrov on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting. However, the UK delegation subsequently stopped communicating. As a result, the meeting did not take place", the source said.

However, the UK embassy in Russia wrote on Telegram on Wednesday that the UK Foreign Office had not requested the meeting between Raab and Lavrov on the margins of the ASEAN summit.

The 52nd ASEAN meeting, post ministerial conferences and related meetings are held in Bangkok from 29 July to 3 August. Lavrov arrived in Thailand for a two-day visit, including his participation in the forum, on Tuesday.

Lavrov previously held a full-fledged bilateral meeting with a UK top diplomat in late 2017, when then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who is currently the prime minister, visited Moscow.