So Sergey Lavrov and Tony Blinken met for nearly two hours at the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik, Iceland, on the sidelines of the ministerial session of the Arctic Council.

The get-together was not exactly a throwback to a Reagan-Gorbachev fun-fest in the good old Cold War days. After all, there was a NATO warship parked right outside the windows of Harpa Hall – like a prop in a Marvel blockbuster. 

But frosty? Not really. Self-described “amateur guitarist” Blinken may have been relatively swayed by the charms of the 1968 Elvis stunner A Little Less Conversation but at least there was some conversation.