Wadephul said his 20-minute meeting with Lavrov in New York on Saturday was held partly at the request of other countries. He said colleagues from the Global South had asked Germany to address the issue of grain exports, as the war was affecting food supplies and could threaten food security in parts of the Global South.
The meeting was the first between the German and Russian foreign ministers since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Wadephul also said he wanted to respond to the August incident at Leipzig airport, eastern Germany, when an armed drone sent by Russian services struck the wing of a Ukrainian transport aircraft.
He said the incident had crossed a line and that Germany expected it not to happen again.
He also told Lavrov that Germany would continue supporting Ukraine and that Russia should end the war immediately.
In an interview with German public broadcaster ARD, Wadephul defended the decision to meet Lavrov, saying that the time has come to talk to Russia.
Wadephul said the suspension of dialogue with Russia had been the right and necessary response to the 2022 invasion, but that Germany should now be ready to talk again.
He said he wanted to signal that negotiations over Ukraine's future could not be left solely to the United States, as Europe had its own interests and views that needed to be taken into account.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said Germany had delivered a serious message to Russia. He said the meeting had included a warning of consequences if the Leipzig drone incident were repeated.
German media reacted to the meeting with mixed assessments, with several newspapers criticising the decision while others argued that the encounter showed Berlin was willing to talk while also exposing Russia's reluctance to engage in substantive negotiations.
(sp)
Source: PAP/IAR