Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Malaysia Thursday at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The meeting put the Russia-Ukraine war at the center of a trip that was meant to strengthen alliances in Southeast Asia.

Marco Rubio met with Sergei Lavrov on Thursday with an acknowledgment that talks between Moscow and Kyiv for peace in Ukraine have not progressed much.

The U.S. secretary of state met with his Russian counterpart on the sidelines of a gathering of Southeast Asian nations, where he also defended new U.S. tariff threats.