“Practical steps to remedy the situation”: what did Lavrov and Pompeo discuss during the meeting

Tensions between Russia and the United States adversely affect the overall situation in the world. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov following a meeting with his American counterpart Mike Pompeo.

“Since we are talking about the two largest nuclear powers, tensions between Russia and the United States inevitably adversely affect the overall situation in the world, so Mike Pompeo and I agreed that we should try to take practical steps to remedy the situation,” Lavrov said.

He expressed the hope that the visit of Mike Pompeo to Russia will contribute not only to improving relations between the countries, but also to solving a number of practical issues on the agenda.

At the same time, Lavrov noted that the United States is not yet ready to reaffirm the agreement between Moscow and Washington on non-interference in each other’s affairs. He gave an example of mutual exchange of notes between the USSR and the USA in 1933, when the parties pledged not to interfere in each other’s internal political processes.

“I would stress once again - the United States was the initiator of this exchange of notes. For several years now, starting with the Obama administration, we have been offering our American partners to reconfirm this agreement until they are ready for it, ”said the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

He spoke in favor of creating a non-governmental expert group of the United States and the Russian Federation and a business council of the two countries, which would include prominent political scientists, former military diplomats and specialists in bilateral relations. Lavrov suggested that the opinion of experts from outside would help Moscow and Washington to overcome the accumulated mistrust.

In addition, the Russian Foreign Minister allowed the creation of a bilateral business council that would bring together representatives of large private businesses on both sides.

“They could also develop recommendations that are aimed at helping governments create comfortable conditions for mutually beneficial economic cooperation,” the Russian minister said.

He noted that he hopes Moscow and Washington will settle Russia's claims to fulfill the strategic offensive arms treaty (START) against the United States. According to Lavrov, the Russian side has concerns about the declared US re-equipment of Trident submarines launchers and heavy bombers from nuclear to non-nuclear equipment.

“The contract provides for specific procedures that should allow the second party to make sure that this conversion and re-equipment is carried out in such a way that it is impossible to return the nuclear potential of the corresponding launchers and bombers,” the minister said.

He added that he prefers not to answer the question about Russia's actions in the event that an agreement is not reached. According to him, the negotiations proceed from the fact that the parties will be able to reach an agreement within the framework of an international commission.

“And to guess what will happen or what will not happen, probably, this is not the task of the diplomats. Our task is to achieve results. We will do just that, ”the Minister concluded.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said at a press conference that he gave Pompeo a copy of an article published in 1987 about a possible attempt by the Soviet Union to "influence the election" of the US president.

Lavrov noted that this topic “can be discussed endlessly,” but as long as “there are no concrete facts on the table,” it is impossible “to talk about it in an adult way.”

“The facts show that there is no evidence for those who inflate this topic,” he added.

Lavrov also said that during the meeting with Pompeo, the most pressing international and regional problems were discussed, in particular, the situation in Venezuela, on the Korean Peninsula, in Syria, in general in the Middle East and North Africa region, in Ukraine, in Afghanistan.

The heads of the foreign affairs agencies also discussed the situation around a joint comprehensive plan of action to resolve the Iranian nuclear program.

The Russian Foreign Minister said that the discussion of the situation in Venezuela was frank. Lavrov recalled that Russia favors an independent determination of the future of the Bolivarian Republic by the people of this country, and this requires a dialogue of all the political forces of Venezuela among themselves.

"The American people are friends with the Russian"

In turn, Pompeo expressed the view that Washington does not want any states to interfere in the internal affairs of Venezuela. According to him, the United States wants the people of the Bolivarian Republic to “get their democracy” and choose a leader for themselves.

"It will be Mr. Maduro or anyone else," - said the Secretary of State.

Pompeo said that the conversation with Lavrov was frank, even on controversial issues.

"We had frank conversations on many issues, even on those issues on which we have no agreement," RIA Novosti quoted the words of the head of the US Secretary of State.

According to Pompeo, the United States wants to find a common solution to the issues.

“President Trump said that his expectations are as follows: we want to improve relations between our countries, because it will be in the interests of both our peoples. And we are doing everything to take steps in this direction, ”said Pompeo.

According to him, Russia and the United States will work on the possible extension of the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Arms.

Pompeo said that the US is doing everything to improve relations with Russia, because it is in the common interest of both countries.

“The American people are friends with the Russian people. We respect each other’s history and culture. We want our relations to improve, and we work together, ”said the head of the US foreign affairs agency.

"New Matrix" of Relations

Before the start of negotiations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed hope that during the meeting it would be possible to work out concrete proposals for withdrawing Russian-American relations "from the current sad state." He also recalled that such a task was formulated earlier by the presidents of Russia and the United States. According to Lavrov, a number of problems have accumulated between Moscow and Washington, which require both "immediate measures and the development of long-term systemic solutions."

“We understand that a lot of suspicion and prejudice has accumulated on both sides. We do not benefit from this. Mutual tightening increases the risks to our and your security and is of concern to the entire world community, ”the Russian Foreign Minister will stress.

He called on American colleagues to build a "new, more responsible constructive matrix of mutual perception of each other." Russia, he said, is ready for these processes.

The head of the State Department, Mike Pompeo, for his part, noted that despite a number of disagreements, on many issues the positions of the two countries are consonant. Therefore, everything must be done to “improve bilateral relations for the sake of common security,” especially since the US president supports this position.

Note, on May 14, the second meeting of Lavrov with his American counterpart from the beginning of May was held. For the first time, they talked on the fields of the Arctic Council on May 6 in Finnish Rovaniemi. According to the Russian Foreign Minister, the meeting was quite productive and made it possible to make a “very good step forward” in the development of a telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the United States Donald Trump, held on May 3.