The Russian Foreign Ministry press release on the Feb. 15 phone call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Foreign Ministry Sergey Lavrov, which is more extensive than the U.S. readout, notes that the U.S. initiated the call. “Building on the Feb. 12 telephone conversation between the Presidents of Russia and the United States, the two foreign ministers agreed to maintain an open channel of communication to address long standing issues in Russian-American relations. Their goal is to remove unilateral barriers inherited from the previous U.S. administration that have hindered mutually beneficial trade, economic and investment cooperation. Both sides expressed a shared commitment to engaging on key international issues, including the situation in Ukraine, developments in Palestine and the broader Middle East, as well as other regional matters.
“The conversation also covered ways to swiftly reverse the restrictions on Russian diplomatic missions in the United States, which were introduced by the Obama administration in 2016 and led to reciprocal measures. It was agreed that expert-level meetings will be organised in the near future to coordinate specific steps towards removing these obstacles to the functioning of diplomatic missions in Russia and the United States.”
The United States readout is terse, reading: “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.
