Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Iceland for a convocation of the Arctic Council will end with a private meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for a conversation that could set the table for a presidential-level meeting this summer.
“The bilateral meeting will take place after the evening’s final Arctic Council event and will provide an opportunity to test the proposition of whether we can achieve a relationship with Moscow that is more stable and predictable,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a Tuesday evening statement.
It will be the first in-person meeting between the two men in Blinken’s tenure as top diplomat, just weeks ahead of an expected encounter between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The days leading up to the visit have been marked by a series of diplomatic warning shots, as Blinken met with a pair of NATO allies on the council and Russian officials signaled their intention to air a series of complaints with the United States.
“Apparently, a decision was made to promote stable, predictable relations with Russia. However, if this includes constant and predictable sanctions, that’s not what we need,” Lavrov told reporters Monday. “We want to look at areas of bilateral relations, international life where our interests may coincide, and search for a balance along the lines of equality and mutual respect.”
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Blinken has decided to waive sanctions on key entities involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany, according to an Axios report published on the eve of the Lavrov meeting. That decision will disappoint allies in the former Soviet space program who regard the pipeline as a Kremlin effort to drive a wedge between Berlin and NATO members further east, though it might avoid irritating Germany and Russia.
U.S. and Russian officials spent the week trading allegations about the militarization of the Arctic.
“We have concerns about some of the increased military activities in the Arctic that increases the dangers or prospects of accidents, miscalculations, and undermines the shared goal of a peaceful and sustainable future for the region,” Blinken said during a trip to Iceland. “What, again, we need to avoid is a militarization of the region.”
That topic is just one of many disputes, ranging from U.S. accusations that Russia conducted the SolarWinds hack that affected American companies and government agencies to the detention of Paul Whelan, an American citizen who has been imprisoned on dubious espionage charges.
Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov returned to Moscow from Washington in March for “consultations” after Biden angered the Kremlin by referring to Putin as a “killer.” U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan followed suit weeks later after Lavrov announced that Sullivan had been advised to “also go to his capital city for thorough, serious consultations” with the broader Biden administration.
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“We will determine which issues we want to cooperate on, as well as the forms of cooperation. Russia will also determine the lines that we will not cross during discussions on the international agenda,” Lavrov said Monday. “This fully applies to the problems of strategic stability. We have repeatedly described our approach to this important issue. Everything that affects strategic stability (nuclear and non-nuclear arms, offensive and defensive weapons) must be on the negotiating table. The Americans know our approach.”
