Speaking to Russia-1 state-owned television channel, the official explained that he had a “brief, but useful” conversation with Biden, who sent “his best regards” to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and stressed his interest in maintaining future contacts.

“We also briefly discussed how to develop these contacts in the near future. I have already communicated this to the president and I think it will be important to further organize our agendas,” the Foreign Minister said.

During his visit to Rome, Lavrov also met with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), who referred to the meeting on his Twitter account.

“We met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the G20 summit in Rome and agreed on the need to strengthen the global health architecture, included WHO’s key role to prevent health threats,” Ghebreyesus tweeted.

In the Italian capital, the head of Russian diplomacy also spoke with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, and other high-ranking renowned figures attending the forum.

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