Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have met for talks in the Finnish capital, a TASS correspondent reported from the scene on Monday.
The top diplomats are holding talks simultaneously with the summit of Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.
Lavrov and Pompeo greeted each other and shook hands. The talks are being held behind closed doors.
It is the first ever one-on-one meeting for Lavrov and Pompeo since the latter’s appointment as the Secretary of State. Before that, they had talked several times by phone.
The Russian foreign minister told earlier Russian broadcaster RT that the two would discuss all the issues which they would want to focus on.
In late June, a meeting of Lavrov and Pompeo was reported to be scheduled prior to the Russia-US summit. Nevertheless, as the Russian foreign minister said, the US Secretary of State told him in a phone talk that he could not meet with Lavrov, referring to a tough schedule.