Russia’s relations with the United States are not frozen, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a joint press conference following an official visit to China. He underscored that Russia is ready for contacts.
“As for the ‘freezing point,’ our relations with the United States have not reached that stage. We engage regularly at various levels,” the Minister said. “We remain open to contacts: some initiated proactively, others at the request of the American side. Not all of these interactions are publicised, as very often practical results depend on the “regime of silence,” Lavrov added.
Nonetheless, Lavrov said, “we harbor no illusions about the objectives pursued by the United States, even when it claims to be guided by national interests, in contrast to the previous administration of Joe Biden.”
Lavrov pointed out that U.S. national interests are enshrined in “doctrinal documents such as the national security and energy strategies, which explicitly set the goal of achieving dominance in global energy markets. This objective is being actively pursued, including in relation to Venezuelan oil. Now, they are also trying to use some kind of ‘scheming’ around Iranian oil, aiming to profit from it one way or another,” he said.
Lavrov also said the Trump administration continues the Biden Administration’s sanctions policy against Russia, even adding new sanctions especially against Russian oil companies that have pushed Lukoil and Rosneft out of international projects and leaving them to operate primarily within Russia.
Once the Ukrainian conflict is settled, Lavrov sees the possibility of restoring mutually beneficial cooperation with the U.S.
“Once the Ukrainian crisis is resolved fully taking into account Russia’s legitimate interests, we will be interested in restoring and resuming investment cooperation with those countries that are willing to do so on an equal, mutually respectful, and mutually beneficial basis,” the diplomat said. “In our view, there are such intentions, and there are companies in the United States ready to work on these principles, and there is also interest from the administration,” he added.
“For now, they speak about business only in theoretical terms—let’s first deal with Ukraine, then everything else follows. There may be very little left by the time the Americans propose to begin such a discussion in practical terms,” Lavrov warned.
Lavrov blamed the Europeans for sabotaging the understandings reached between the U.S. and Russia during the Anchorage summit:
“It is not our fault that what can only be described as a pack from Europe immediately rushed to influence the U.S. administration so that it would not agree to its own proposal, would not insist on it and would withdraw it.".
