America is ready to help end the war in Ukraine

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met on Thursday with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in the Philippines for talks during which the American side was expected to renew the possibility of Washington trying to mediate an end to the war in Ukraine.

The US State Department provided only limited details about the meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the annual meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Manila.

A US State Department spokesman said, in a statement, “The two sides discussed relations between the United States and Russia, and the need to end the Russian-Ukrainian war.”

Rubio said: “We will have to put forward new proposals and ideas” that are acceptable to both parties. He added that there is no change in Washington’s military support for Ukraine.

On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed his talk that his priority is to find a way to return to negotiations.

Rubio also met with a number of other officials, including the Chinese Foreign Minister, on the sidelines of the annual meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Manila.

Rubio said that the United States is focusing on the Asian region, as it escalates its confrontation with Iran, seeks to find a path to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, and pressures the Cuban government to make changes.

The closed-door talks, which began on Tuesday, focused on escalating fighting in the Middle East and tensions in the South China Sea, where a new clash broke out today.

“There will always be a concern that America is so preoccupied with one place that it can’t focus elsewhere,” Rubio said. But he noted that the United States remains “engaged in Asia on a daily basis.”