Tillerson and Lavrov will Meet in Manila this Weekend

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson believes there is a danger that Russian-American relations will get worse. Tillerson will meet with Russia's first diplomat Sergei Lavrov at a regional forum in Manila this weekend. Reports BNT.

Tillerson spoke to journalists in Washington. They will be in Manila for the ministerial meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to which countries from the wider East Asian region are also invited.
This will be the first face-to-face meeting of US and Russian foreign ministers after Moscow's decision to cut off more than 750 US diplomatic mission staff in Russia. Tillerson said to journalists that they had already talked over the phone in recent days, and these conversations were "professional, without aggressiveness."

Moscow's decision, of course, will make our lives more difficult, Tillerson told reporters at the State Department when asked about the consequences of Russian measures. "It seems to me that Minister Lavrov and I understand our roles, we understand our responsibility, I believe that he, as much as I, is a supporter of the attempts to find a way to normalise our relations and to get closer (Moscow and Washington), "said the first US diplomat, quoted by TASS.

He admitted that Russian-American relations are facing a further deterioration. According to him, the outcome of this situation is "to maintain some level of stability in these relations by pursuing the search for mutual interests and ways of settling disagreements so that they do not become an open conflict."
Tillerson said neither he nor President Donald Trump was "very happy" with the new sanctions against Russia, which Congress voted last week. "We have clearly made it clear that we believe that these actions do not contribute to the success of our efforts to normalize Russian-American relations, but that was the decision of the legislators, and they adopted it with a huge majority. According to him, sanctions show that Americans are highly puzzled by Moscow's actions, though they want the US to have "functional relations" with this nuclear power.
Addressing the Donbass problem, he again called for the implementation of the Ministerial Agreements to be directly related to the issue of mitigation and lifting of sanctions.
Tillerson, quoted by the Associated Press, also admitted there are some differences with President Trump, for example on the issue of a nuclear agreement with Iran, but added that he felt good at his post and dispelled the speculation that he was dissatisfied and was looking for a way to withdraw. He said he used Trump's trust, who often called him in late hours and weekends, looking for his advice on different foreign policy issues.

Regarding the talks in Geneva on Syria, Tillerson said the United States supports the form of inter-Sirian talks but believes there are no conditions for a new round of debates on the future of the Syrian government. First, stabilization zones and conflict prevention channels must be created, "Tilerson said.

Washington is open to talks with Moscow on the issue of the necessary sequential steps to overcome the conflict in Syria, he said. The Secretary of State stressed that the United States is striving to preserve a "united rather than divided" Syria, developing a "new constitution" in the Arab country, producing "free and fair elections," assuming the power of "new leadership". "And we still think that the (President Bashar) Asad's regime has no role in the future governance of Syria," the US statesman added. At the same time, he described as a success, albeit a small one, the creation of a deescalation zone in Southwest Syria with the efforts of Russia, the United States and Jordan.

The Washington administration is planning a campaign of "peaceful pressure" on North Korea, but the United States is not pushing for a regime change in this country and an accelerated unification of the Korean Peninsula, Tilerson said.

It is a peaceful pressure to get Pyongyang to negotiate with the United States and other countries, he said. "But it has to be understood that the condition for such negotiations is as follows: North Korea can not have a nuclear weapon in the future or the possibility of launching it to any of the countries in the region, let alone our country," added the politician.

The crisis in Qatar's relations with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain must be resolved to continue the fight against terrorism in this region, Rex Tillerson noted. He stressed the role of the Co-operation Council in the Gulf for Stability in the region.

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