Story highlights Tillerson met Lavrov on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum

He also discussed North Korea with regional diplomats at the meeting

Manila (CNN) The top US diplomat told his Russian counterpart that Moscow's alleged meddling in the 2016 US election has seriously damaged the relationship between the two countries.

Speaking at the ASEAN Regional Forum in the Philippines Monday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that "meddling in the elections is certainly a serious incident."

"We talked about it in the discussion we had with Minister Lavrov yesterday -- and trying to help them understand just how serious this incident had been and how seriously it had damaged the relationship between the US and the American people and the Russian people," Tillerson said.

"(I said) this had created serious mistrust between our two countries and that we simply have to find some way to deal with that."

Moscow has consistently maintained that it did not interfere in last year's US general election , rebutting claims by multiple American intelligence agencies.

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