Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held negotiations with his American counterpart Rex Tillerson in Manila. They raised questions of the bilateral relations and collaboration on Syria in the course of their meeting, TASS informs.
US State Secretary was interested, first of all, in the topic of Russian retaliatory measures in response to American sanctions. Sergey Lavrov cleared out the position of the Russian authorities on this question. In particular, he has pointed out that Russia has been waiting for improvement of Russian-American relations for a long time and has not reacted on sending its diplomats out of the country and other unfriendly measures undertaken by US immediately.
It should be reminded that
US Congress has adopted the draft law on tougher anti-Russian sanctions on July 27. The bill
was signed by the White House head on August 2. Only after these actions, Russia has decided to cut down a number of staff working in American Embassies in Russia.
Sergey Lavrov has emphasized that Russia is ready to continue its dialogue with US, in case America avoids confrontation. Despite the existing disagreements, Lavrov and Tillerson acknowledged the importance of contacts between Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon.
Russian Foreign Minister hopes for continuation of collaboration between the two countries on Syrian crisis. Lavrov has marked that several important issues have already been resolved, including the question of de-escalation zones’ creation. He expressed assuredness that provided all participants of peace negotiations – Russia, Turkey, Iran and the US headed coalition apply their influence, “they will manage to find conditions for further political progress”.
Russkiy Mir
