Blinken and Lavrov meet, discuss build-up around Ukraine

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Iceland on May 19. The meeting took place
as both were attending the Arctic Council ministerial level meeting in
Reykjavik. A readout with comments from State Department spokesperson Ned Price
stating that along with Arctic region concerns, Blinken broached the“deep
concerns” the U.S. had regarding the “continued military deployments in and
near Ukraine”. Reuters quotes Blinken as saying that it’s, “no secret that we
have our differences”.

James Hydzik: Against the
backdrop of the Biden administration’s announcement that further sanctions
related to Nord Stream 2 will not be laid, the meeting lost some of its
headline-news impact. However, the Biden Administration could see itself as
having backed the Russians down from their saber-rattling along the Ukrainian
border, and feel like normalizing relations a little. Whether this is the
correct route to take, or if it would have been better to keep the pressure on
the Russians and the commercial and political entities that side with it, is
less clear.