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US maintains contact with Russia on Ukraine, Syria, other issues - State Department

"As we have said many times, this administration has been clear that the door to dialogue is open," the official said

US Department of State building EPA/MIKE THEILER

US Department of State building

© EPA/MIKE THEILER

WASHINGTON, August 17. /TASS/. The United States maintains contact with Russia on Syria and Ukraine, as well as strategic stability and many other bilateral issues, a US Department of State spokesperson told TASS on Thursday.

"As we have said many times, this administration has been clear that the door to dialogue is open," the official said, when asked about plans of holding a new round of talks between Washington and Moscow on strategic stability.

"We maintain channels of communications with Russia on Ukraine, Syria, arms control, strategic stability, and many other bilateral matters," the source said, without giving a direct answer to a TASS correspondent’s question.

US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy John Rood confirmed in July that the process was underway to arrange "a period of time, a date and a place, to meet to have strategic stability talks," to discuss nuclear doctrines, among other things. Earlier this week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow’s proposal to resume the dialogue remains in force. He added that regretfully the US side is yet to confirm its readiness to restart this format of consultations.

The Russian-American negotiations on strategic stability and the prevention of problems in bilateral relations were chaired by Ryabkov and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon. Shortly after Shannon’s retirement was announced in February, Ryabkov expressed hope that the format of cooperation between deputy heads of foreign ministers will be preserved.

The creation of this communication channel became one of the results of then-US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Moscow in April last year. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed in September that the sides intend to preserve the mechanism of these regular contacts.

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