MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. The coronavirus pandemic has not affected the contacts between Moscow and Washington, Russia’s Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said in an interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman on Saturday.
"Contacts between the presidents have not been interrupted in spite of the pandemic. The leaders are continuing to discuss pressing issues of international security and bilateral relations over the phone. I will say that the conversations are business-like, friendly, pragmatic and constructive. They are focused on key issues," he said.
According to the ambassador, this can also be said about contacts between the foreign ministers.
"Military issues are discussed in phone calls by Chief of the General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces Army General Valery Gerasimov and General Mark Milley, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is crucial that the defense ministers coordinate efforts in the military sector," Antonov said.
"We are hopeful that the time will come when we will see Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, [Russian Defense Minister and US Secretary of Defense] Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu and Mark Esper at the negotiating table," Antonov concluded.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 8.6 million people have been infected worldwide and more than 460,000 deaths have been reported.