In an address to the Antalya Diplomatic Forum held April 11-13, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarked that President Trump may be the “almost the only one among the Western leaders who repeatedly, with conviction, several times stated that it was a huge mistake to pull Ukraine into NATO,” as reported by Russia’s Foreign Ministry.
Referring to ongoing talks between the U.S. and Russia, he said, “‘They [the Americans] also mention now another thing that is related to the root causes, namely territorial issues.... They recognize that territorial issues would have to be handled in the context of long-lasting settlement, and they would like to do it.” He also noted that, “‘What is going on between us and the [U.S. President Donald] Trump administration is really a very banal thing: countries talk to each other, without dictating to each other, without asking for any precondition, they just talk to each other.’”
