Ministers from the governments of Germany and Russia have met for the first time since 2022, since Vladimir Putin ordered the large-scale invasion of Ukraine. The meeting took place on Saturday in New York between the Foreign Ministers, Johann Wadepuhl and Sergei Lavrov, respectively. The meeting lasted 20 minutes and both parties exchanged harsh words. With serious faces they shook hands twice. “You should not negotiate with your allies, it is with your rivals that you should negotiate, it is a pillar of foreign policy,” Wadepuhl said hours later.
The meeting took place in the meetings following the United Nations general assembly held this week in New York. It is also the first face-to-face meeting with Lavrov of a senior representative of one of the great powers of the European Union since the start of the war.
Yes, the Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico, who is close to the Kremlin's positions, has met with Putin in 2026. During the war, the Russian president also maintained a close relationship with the government of former Hungarian Prime Minister Víktor Orbán. Lavrov met in 2023 with his then Austrian counterpart, Alexander Schallenberg, during a summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. In recent years there have been meetings between envoys from both parties. In July 2026, for example, the ambassadors of Germany, France and the United Kingdom met in Moscow with a delegate from Lavrov.
Wadepuhl conveyed to Lavrov that Russia “must abandon the dangerous path of escalation with Germany, Europe and NATO.” The Christian Democrat politician specifically mentioned the failed drone bomb attack last August at Leizpig airport. The German Government accuses Russia of being behind this attack, which targeted Ukrainian cargo planes. Germany's Prosecutor General's Office is investigating several suspects linked to the Russian security services.
After the incident in Leipzig, Berlin announced new sanctions against Moscow, greater controls on Russian citizens entering its territory and the closure of the consulate in Moscow and the Russian House of Culture in Berlin. The Kremlin reacted by closing the Goethe Institute headquarters in its territory. It is the German equivalent of the Spanish Cervantes Institute.
Lavrov criticized Wadepuhl after the meeting in statements collected by the DPA agency. According to the veteran Russian diplomat, it was the German side that asked, at the last moment, to hold the meeting. “I have the impression that they came to see me to patronize me,” Lavrov said, “to repeat the daily speech from Berlin, [Wadepuhl] could have called me and read me the statement.”
The head of Russian diplomacy added that the German delegation wanted to hold the interview in exchange for Russia suspending its maritime blockade in the Black Sea.
Wadepuhl admitted on public television ARD that the meeting did not bring results, beyond reactivating the diplomatic channel: "To all those who insist that Germany must negotiate, dialogue with Russia, I answer that that is what we are doing. But unfortunately, Russia does not currently show any willingness for a constructive negotiating position."
The meeting with Lavrov also has a German national key component. The government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his party, the CDU, are facing a large drop in popularity that is benefiting parties in favor of normalizing relations with Russia, specifically the far-right AfD.
The first high-level contact between Germans and Russians coincides with the invitation of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, for Vladimir Putin to attend the G-20 summit of heads of state and government, which will be held in December in Miami. Trump has also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Several attempts in 2025 by the Trump White House to bring the two rivals together ended in failure.
