Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in the Philippine capital Manila on Tuesday to participate in a series of meetings hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, according to the ministry.
Lavrov is scheduled to attend ASEAN-related events from July 21 to 23, including a Russia-ASEAN ministerial meeting, the East Asia Summit foreign ministers' gathering and the ASEAN Regional Forum.
The meetings bring together the foreign ministers of the bloc's 11 member states and senior diplomats from the bloc's dialogue partners, including China, Russia, the US, Japan, India and the EU, TASS reported.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio are also expected to participate in the Manila meetings.
A meeting between Lavrov and Rubio could take place on the sidelines of the events, after Moscow and Washington indicated they were open to contacts between the two top diplomats. However, no meeting had been formally confirmed as of Monday.
Regional discussions are expected to focus on the conflict in Myanmar, tensions in the South China Sea and disruptions to global trade and energy supplies caused by instability in the Middle East.
ASEAN was founded in 1967 and includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Timor-Leste.
