Putin, Trump Stress Importance of Limiting Arms Race, Will Meet Soon
SputnikNews.com
20.03.2018
US President Donald Trump has congratulated Vladimir Putin on his win in Sunday’s presidential election in Russia. In addition, the presidents held a phone conversation on a number of burning issues in world politics.
On Russia-US Relations
“The presidents spoke in favor of developing a practical interaction in various areas, including the issues of strategic stability and combating international terrorism. In particular, the sides emphasized the importance of coordinated efforts in limiting the arms race,” Kremlin said, commenting the phone conversation held by Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Trump congratulated Vladimir Putin on his victory in the presidential elections in Russia. The phone conversation took place at the initiative of the American side, according to Moscow.
Following the phone call Donald Trump said that he was going to meet with the Russian president in “not too distant future.”
“We had a very good call and I suspect that we will probably be meeting in the not too distant future to discuss the arms race… to discuss Ukraine and Syria and North Korea and various other things,” Trump said.
Kremlin characterized the conversation as “constructive” and “focused on addressing the problems in Russia-US relations.”
During the phone call the agreement to develop further bilateral contacts was reached, taking into consideration a major reshuffle in the US State Department, Moscow noted, referring to the recent dismissal of Rex Tillerson from the post of State Secretary. Special attention was payed to the discussion of possible Russia-US summit.
The ties between Moscow and Washington began to deteriorate in 2014, in the wake of the crisis in Ukraine and subsequent Crimea’s reunification with Russia, after which the US and its allies imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia. Tensions between two countries have run high anew as the US closed Russian diplomatic compounds in San Francisco and Washington, DC, stirring up a diplomatic scandal.
On North Korea
Both presidents expressed their satisfaction with a certain decrease of tensions on the Korean peninsula, the Kremlin’s press service said. In addition, Putin and Trump stressed the necessity to resolve the nuclear crisis by diplomatic means.
Recently, positive developments began to show on the Korean peninsula. Earlier in March, US President Donald Trump accepted the invitation to meet with Kim by the end of May following months of heightened tensions and exchanges of frequent military threats between the two leaders. Donald Trump said later that he expected “tremendous success” in solving the North Korean issue, saying that he expected Pyongyang to cease its ballistic missile and nuclear tests as well as denuclearize.
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