"There has been no meeting, and it will not be held," Ryabkov said. "We’ll be waiting for another chance," he added.
Lavrov is currently on a tour of African countries. On Thursday, he arrived in Addis Ababa. Tillerson is also touring African countries in what is his first visit to the continent as US Secretary of State.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryablov said earlier this week that Moscow had suggested that a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson be organized in Ethiopia. However, the US Department of State Spokesperson Heather Nauert said later that Washington had not received a request for a meeting from Moscow. Russia’s embassy in the US said such statements were untrue, adding that Moscow sent a request to the US Department of State on a possible meeting between Lavrov and Tillerson on March 2. Later Lavrov himself rejected as untrue the allegations that no discussions of his possible meeting with US Secretary of State in Ethiopia were held.
TASS
