Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, as the secretary also answered a significant number of questions regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, Venezuela, Cuba, and the Iran conflict.
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio met today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of UNGA,” a State Department readout on Wednesday explained. “The Secretary discussed the Russia-Ukraine war and the U.S.-Russia bilateral relationship.”
In a press conference on Wednesday morning, the secretary said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been extended an invitation to the G20 summit in Miami this December.
“We’ve invited President Putin to the G20. We think it’s an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president, but with other world leaders,” he said.
“We hope that’s an invitation he will accept, there’s an opportunity in December if that happens,” Rubio added, stressing a “purpose” behind the meeting.
Marco Rubio on Russia:
— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 23, 2026
We’ve invited President Putin to the G20. We think it’s an opportunity for him to engage not just with Trump, but with other world leaders.
We hope that’s an invitation he will accept. pic.twitter.com/e0GSz7Y8gm
The last time Putin and Trump met in person was in Alaska in 2025, but the two recently had a publicly known phone call after American special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met separately with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this month. Trump and Zelenskyy met at the UNGA on Tuesday.
Rubio noted that both nations might want to do a “limited ceasefire that involves grain and energy.”
“Obviously, that won’t be easy either,” Rubio said.
“It doesn’t solve the war, but it does, I think, in some ways potentially alleviate some of the global pressures that are being felt as a result of that,” he continued, saying it was brought up in the Witkoff-Kushner meeting at the Tuesday conversation with Zelensky.
“Ultimately, we all want this war to end,” Rubio said, expressing that he thinks the conflict will conclude with a “negotiated agreement” rather than “on the battlefield.”
On Venezuela, Rubio gave some more details into the pull-aside discussion the president and Venezuela Interim President Delcy Rodriguez had on Tuesday night. Rodriguez has remained in power after the United States captured Nicolás Maduro.
SECRETARY RUBIO on VENEZUELA: What we want to see is not only that you have free and fair elections, but that you have an enduring Republic. pic.twitter.com/c19IY17TO2
— Department of State (@StateDept) September 23, 2026
The meeting came as Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has unsuccessfully tried to get back into the South American country, as she and others have been asking for an election date to be set for next summer.
“Venezuela has a lot of problems,” Rubio said, noting how they need to “restructure” their debt.
“There has to be a political transition process, which is underway,” he said.
Rubio said it needs to be an “enduring republic” as well as “rebuild the necessary institutions so that there can be free and fair elections.”
He said the nation needs a degree of economic stability and other infrastructure in order to have a functioning democracy in the country, such as “authorities who govern elections.”
As Trump directly called out communist leadership in Cuba on Tuesday, the secretary said that the Cuban revolution has “failed.”
“They have an opportunity to begin to put their country on an irreversible trajectory toward progress and a better future. That involves both political and economic freedom, no doubt about it,” he said.
When it comes to Iran, he gave more insight into the conversation American officials had with “mediators” to communicate with the Islamic Republic’s leaders on the ground at the UNGA this week.
“I don’t want to mischaracterize yesterday’s talks as a major breakthrough, but I think at the same time it was significant that at least there was a conversation,” the secretary noted.
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