German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Saturday, in the first such talks since before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, officials from both sides said.

Wadephul said the meeting was driven by security concerns, including what Germany says was a Russian drone incident at Leipzig airport in August, and by a growing Black Sea food-export crisis. “Russia has to understand that we are ready to resist and to defend ourselves,” he told German broadcaster ARD.

He urged Lavrov to do “everything possible to reach an agreement on grain exports via the Black Sea,” according to a German delegation source. Russia’s foreign ministry said the two discussed bilateral relations and the war in Ukraine. Lavrov told reporters he had learned nothing new from the meeting.

Relations between Moscow and Berlin have been frozen for years. What happens next: Wadephul briefed European allies on the talks and kept calling for a complete ceasefire, while Lavrov said talks with India, Egypt and Turkey on Black Sea navigation continue.