A 20-minute meeting between German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York revived debate over Berlin’s role in diplomatic efforts related to the war in Ukraine, despite ending without an agreement and being played down by the Russian minister.
Berlin explains aims of New York meeting
The meeting was held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly and was the first bilateral meeting between the two countries’ foreign ministers since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The German Foreign Ministry described it as important, despite the lack of agreed results, and said the continued deterioration in relations between Berlin and Moscow was not in Germany’s interest.
It said the possibility of returning to constructive relations remained open, but linked this to a serious willingness by the Russian leadership to end the war and help achieve lasting peace in Europe. Wadephul called on Russia to step back from its course of escalation towards Europe and NATO. He also stressed that incidents such as the attempted attack at Leipzig Airport in early August, along with other indirect attacks, would not change Germany’s determination to continue supporting Ukraine.
Lavrov plays down significance of meeting
Lavrov, by contrast, played down the value of the meeting. Responding to a question in New York, he said: “If we look at the daily public statements coming from Berlin, I have not heard anything different,” adding that he had told his German counterpart he could simply have called him by telephone and asked him to read out a Berlin statement.
The Russian minister gave a different account of what took place at the meeting, saying he had asked Wadephul what he had brought with him, after which the German minister took out some notes and read from a text. Lavrov added that what he heard was merely a repetition of the positions announced daily by the German leadership, commenting: “I heard nothing new. You could simply have called me by telephone.”
German divisions over value of dialogue
The German newspaper Tagesspiegel highlighted the contrast between Lavrov’s dismissal of the meeting and the German Foreign Ministry’s assessment that it was important for several reasons. The liberal-left newspaper said Berlin had probably expected the Russian minister’s remarks, given his well-known style, but had nevertheless chosen to hold the bilateral meeting.
According to the newspaper, it remains unclear which side took the initiative in arranging the meeting, although the German Foreign Ministry views the fact that it took place as positive in itself. It quoted sources in the German delegation as saying that a return to a more cooperative relationship between Russia and Germany remained possible at any time if the necessary conditions were in place.
Tagesspiegel quoted Wadephul as saying that several of his counterparts had asked him to remain open to dialogue with Russia and advised him that the two sides would at some point need to return to direct negotiations. The minister said Europeans did not want to leave management of talks on the war to the Americans alone, and also rejected decisions concerning Ukraine being taken without the participation of Ukrainians.
Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, director of the German Council on Foreign Relations, said Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump viewed Europe as a problem they wanted to deal with at Europe and Ukraine’s expense. He added that Europeans were trying to ensure they had a seat at any negotiations on a ceasefire, but had so far failed to achieve this.
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The conservative newspaper Die Welt, for its part, said the meeting had sparked debate in Germany, particularly after it was announced that it had produced no results, and argued that Lavrov had put Berlin in a difficult diplomatic position. It said identifying which side had requested the meeting was diplomatically significant, amid two conflicting accounts of how it had been arranged.
According to Lavrov’s account, Germany requested the meeting at the last minute. The other account says Russia sent signals through third countries that it was ready for dialogue, after which Germany responded to those signals and Wadephul agreed to meet his Russian counterpart. The meeting also addressed a Russian document that appeared in front of the German minister and whose title accused Ukraine and the West of fabricating the events in Bucha in 2022.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the document contained, according to its account, clear evidence that the events in Bucha had been fabricated by Ukraine with the backing of Western countries. The events in Bucha took place on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in March 2022, when the city was under the control of Russian forces, before they withdrew at the end of the month.
After Ukrainian forces and journalists entered, dozens of civilian bodies were found in streets, homes and basements, as well as mass graves. Austria’s Der Standard, meanwhile, said in an article titled “Nothing new in either the East or the West” that the meeting had produced no solutions and that the dispute extended even to identifying which side had initiated the request.
It noted that Lavrov attributed the request to Germany, while Wadephul said officials from other countries had contacted him and told him that Russia was ready for talks. The newspaper linked the meeting to growing debate in Germany over the value of continuing to support Ukraine.
It said this debate was reflected in the results of local elections in three German states, where the far-right Alternative for Germany made significant gains, at a time when the party strongly opposes the war and is calling for it to end immediately.
Despite the absence of an agreement at the New York meeting, Berlin insists that keeping the channel of dialogue open could allow direct negotiations to resume in the future, while stressing that no decisions on the war should be taken without Ukraine or away from the Europeans. Lavrov, by contrast, maintained that the meeting contained nothing new beyond the German statements issued daily.
