U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would be ready to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of events held under the auspices of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the Philippines.

“I’m not sure this has been finalized. But we would be ready to meet with them. Of course,” Rubio said, answering reporters’ question about whether he was prepared to meet with Lavrov or Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the aforementioned events in the Philippines.

As the State Department said earlier, the head of U.S. diplomacy will be in Manila on July 19–23. He is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with officials from a number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Lavrov will also take part in some ASEAN ministerial-level events to be held in Manila. As Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed earlier, Lavrov will participate in these events from July 21 to 23.