 "Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. File image/ Reuters")
According to Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke over the phone on Saturday and decided to keep in touch in order to prepare for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump.
It further said that the U.S. side had initiated the phone contact.
“The two sides expressed their mutual willingness to interact on pressing international issues, including the settlement around Ukraine, the situation around Palestine and in general in the Middle East and other regional directions,” the ministry said in a statement.
“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.”
Trump and Putin spoke for over an hour on Wednesday, the first known direct contact between U.S. and Russian presidents since Putin had a call with Joe Biden shortly before ordering tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.