OSAKA /Japan/, June 28. /TASS/. Russia and the United States clearly realize that it is necessary to develop bilateral cooperation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after the meeting of the Russian and US presidents, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, earlier in the day.
The Putin-Trump meeting was held on the sidelines of the G20 summit on Friday in Japan’s Osaka and lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes. While opening their meeting, both leaders noted that the negotiations could become a good reason for continuing the dialogue on the issues that had accumulated for this talk.
"I would say that the attitude remains the same because all Russian-US [summit] meetings, beginning with Hamburg in 2017, Helsinki in 2018, telephone talks, were all very constructive," Lavrov said.
"We all understand very well that Russia and the United States must be cooperating," the top Russian diplomat stated.
The Russian foreign minister also said the leaders discussed bilateral trade during their meeting today.
"Although it [the trade] keeps growing, it lags behind in terms of absolute figures compared to many of our partners and many American partners," Lavrov said, adding that the talks also touched upon the necessity to reinvigorate the joint work of the Russian and American business circles.
"President Putin noted that an American delegation was among the largest in terms of its representation at the [2019] St. Petersburg Economic Forum, listing 550 businessmen," Lavrov said. "This business sentiment needs to be taken into account."
On Russia’s part, both leaders’ talks today were also attended by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, First Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov and Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov. On the US side, State Secretary Michael Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, National Security Adviser John Bolton and White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham also took part in the negotiations.