MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expects to discuss specific steps to iron out relations between the two countries at a meeting with UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
"Of course, we are partners in the UN Security Council, in the G20, and, despite divergent stances on a number of issues, we just need to cooperate, and we are ready to do so on the basis of equality, mutual respect and the desire to find mutually acceptable agreements," Russia’s top diplomat said in his opening remarks. "So, I hope to have a frank and open conversation today and believe that its principal task is to outline specific steps to iron out our relations."
Lavrov noted that Russian-British relations are at a low point now not at Moscow’s initiative. "Our relations - there is no secret here - are at a very low point, and not at our initiative," he stressed. "We noticed that both you and our other Western colleagues have their own views of the reasons for this situation and prefer to announce these reasons in public. We would like to discuss these mutual concerns directly, not through a microphone but eye to eye," he said.
"I hope that today we will be able to assess the situation in these relations, including the frozen state of a number of bilateral cooperation mechanisms that have been created," Russia's top diplomat said. "I am certain that today we will also be able to analyze the positive trends in our trade and economic relations, between our businesspeople along with cultural and humanitarian ties, which are developing very successfully."