The Kremlin on Monday said it would welcome contacts between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ‌in Manila this week where members ​of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are gathering.

Rubio, who is in ⁠the Philippines through Thursday, said over ​the weekend he would be ready to meet Lavrov ⁠on the sidelines of ASEAN-related events, but that he was not sure if such a meeting had ‌been finalized.

Asked on Monday about ​the possibility of ‌such a meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated Moscow was ‌in favor of the two top diplomats meeting.

"Contacts through the ministries of foreign affairs ⁠and diplomatic channels are ‌of course largely ⁠of a technical nature, but if there were to ⁠be ⁠contact at the level of foreign ministers, we would certainly ‌welcome it," Peskov told reporters.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, told the RIA ‌state news ​agency later ‌Monday that officials were working on setting up the meeting.