US Secretary of State talks to Russia's Foreign Minister

Russia's Foreign Ministry has said that on 15 February, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the initiative of the US side.

Source: Russian Foreign Ministry, US State Department 

Details: According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the conversation "outlined the mutual willingness to cooperate on topical international issues, including the settlement around Ukraine, the situation around Palestine and in general in the Middle East and other regional areas".

It is noted that, following a telephone conversation between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump on 12 February, the foreign ministers "agreed to maintain a channel of communication to resolve the problems that have accumulated in Russian-American relations in order to remove the unilateral barriers to mutually beneficial trade, economic and investment cooperation inherited from the previous administration".

The Russian Foreign Ministry also stated that the parties agreed "to organise a meeting of experts in the near future to agree on concrete steps to mutually remove obstacles to the work of foreign missions of Russia and the United States".

Quote: "Sergei Lavrov and Marco Rubio reaffirmed their readiness to work together to restore mutually respectful interstate dialogue in line with the tone set by the presidents. They agreed on regular contacts, in particular, to prepare for a Russian-American summit meeting."

Updated: The US State Department later reported the conversation.

Quote from the US State Department: "Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as a follow up to President Donald Trump’s conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin earlier this week.  

The Secretary reaffirmed President Trump’s commitment to finding an end to the conflict in Ukraine. In addition, they discussed the opportunity to potentially work together on a number of other bilateral issues." 

Background:

• On Wednesday, Trump spoke with Putin and stated that they agreed on the need "to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the war with Russia/Ukraine".  
• "We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s nations," the US president said.  
• Afterwards, Trump called Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss future contacts.

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