PARIS, October 15. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who met U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris on Tuesday, said they had agreed to continue contacts in a bid to bridge a gap in the positions of Russia and the United States.
Lavrov said that the talks basically focused on the international agenda. “The conclusion is as follows: we have an understanding that in a range of cases we may cooperate more effectively to increase the efficiency of efforts of the entire world community,” he said. “First of all, it is the fight against terrorism which is becoming a key threat in a big space of the Middle East and North Africa.”
“Another problem where we want international efforts to be successful is efforts to stop the Ebola outbreak,” he said. “Russia was among the first to send its medics to African countries, to Guinea, to Sierra Leone affected by this disease.” The Russian minister reassured that Russia would build up its efforts to curb this disease. “We support what other countries are doing in line with the initiative announced by the United Nations Secretary General,” he noted.
However he admitted that Russia and the United States still had different approaches to a number of problems. “These approaches are well known,” Lavrov said. “Today, we confirmed that differences doe exist but it is in our interests to look for solutions on these problems, but such solutions should be based of equal agreements and on due account of each other’s interests.”
“I think this meeting was useful, we agreed to continue contacts in order to make progress on all of these problems,” he noted. “/We agreed/ to continue cooperation, where we can do it, and increase the efficiency of joint efforts, and to look for agreements - fair and equal - that will reflect the balance of interests, where we have differences.