Russia and Germany Hold First Direct Talks Since 2022 on Sidelines of UN General Assembly

The foreign ministers of Russia and Germany held direct talks on Saturday for the first time since Moscow launched its war against Ukraine in 2022, meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The talks come at a time when relations between Moscow and Berlin remain deeply strained. Germany, alongside its European Union and NATO allies, has imposed a series of sanctions on Russia since the start of the war, while Berlin has provided military and economic support to Kyiv.

Meeting on the UN sidelines

The UN General Assembly meetings, which typically draw world leaders and foreign ministers to New York, provided the setting for an encounter that had not taken place in over three years.

No immediate details were available on the substance of the talks or any outcomes, as multiple parties watched for any possible signals of rapprochement or de-escalation between the two countries after years of near-complete diplomatic estrangement at the foreign-minister level.

Neither ministry had yet issued a joint or separate statement clarifying the meeting's agenda, and observers awaited word on whether these talks would mark the beginning of a broader diplomatic channel between the two countries in the period ahead.