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Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia and the US are ready to step up cooperation.
Addressing the annual meeting of the Federal Security Service Board, Putin said that initial contacts with the Donald Trump administration have given rise to hope that issues like the Ukraine conflict can be resolved. The Russian president also said that Russia and the US wanted to establish cooperation but that some Western elites were seeking to undermine their dialogue. He emphasized that "accumulated systemic and strategic problems in the global architecture" had provoked the Ukrainian and other regional crises at the time. "We all see how rapidly the world is changing, the situation in the world. In this regard, I would like to note that the first contacts with the new US administration inspire certain hopes," the Russian President was cited as saying by TASS. "We understand that not everyone welcomes the resumption of Russian-US contacts. Certain Western elites remain committed to maintaining global instability," Putin stated. He added that all available diplomatic and intelligence resources should be used to foil forces attempting to "derail or discredit the emerging dialogue" between Moscow and Washington. Further, in his address to the FSB Board Meeting today, Putin said that Russia has never refused to resolve the Ukraine conflict by peaceful means. Earlier today, diplomats from Russia and the United States held talks in Istanbul in Ankara. Delegations from both countries concluded more than six hours of talks, which were aimed at resolving disputes over the work of their embassies, Russian state news agency TASS said. The talks, it said, were held at the Istanbul residence of the US consul general. The state news agency cited Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying that the negotiators at the closed-door format meeting were "high-level diplomats and experts." Prior to today's meeting, there were two preliminary "technical contacts between Moscow and Washington" on the issue. Bilateral ties between Russia and the US had been strained under the Joe Biden administration, with US authorities shutting Russian visa centre offices in Washington and New York in June 2024. Between February and March 2022, the United States declared 14 Russian diplomats, including members of Russia's permanent mission to the United Nations, "personae non gratae." In retaliation, the Russian Foreign Ministry provided the US with a list of American diplomats to be expelled. In October 2023, Washington ordered two more Russian diplomats to leave the country, following Moscow's expulsion of the first and second secretaries of the US Embassy. Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke over the phone on February 12, 23 days after Trump's inauguration. According to Russian media, the discussion included the Ukrainian conflict, bilateral relations, and the exchange of citizens. On February 18, high-level Russian and US delegations met in Riyadh, after which Lavrov said that both sides had reached an agreement on the speedy appointment of the Russian ambassador to the US and the US ambassador to Russia. The US was represented by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and special envoy for the Middle East Steven Witkoff. On Wednesday, the Kremlin spokesperson said that there is a mutual understanding that a personal meeting between the Russian and US presidents should take place, but no concrete date has been set. Meawhile, Donald Trump said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be visiting Washington on Friday, during which Trump has said a US-Ukraine agreement on rare earth metals will be signed. (ANI)
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