MOSCOW, June 9. /TASS/. Moscow is pursuing normalization of relations with Washington and is calling on the United States to be just as responsible in these efforts, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday at the Primakov Readings forum.

"The meeting between the Russian and US presidents will take place in Geneva in a week’s time. Very serious expectations are attached to it, it is truly a crucial event on the international agenda. We hope that this event will bring answers to many questions," he said. "I personally don’t have an answer to the question of whether it will be possible to ensure a sustainable trend towards the settlement of problems and normalization of relations after this contact, but the Russian side will pursue this. This is the crux of all the tasks that we are trying to address currently, and we are calling on the [US President Joe] Biden administration to be just as responsible and energetic as we are in achieving this goal."

According to Ryabkov, it is necessary to realize that time flies much faster at the current stage of development of international relations than what we are used to. "And we can no longer work in the same system of coordinates that we operated in for many years," he added.

"It seems like the treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive arms (New START — TASS) was extended just yesterday while we are already in summer 2021. US midterm elections are already on the horizon, and the countdown of the five-year extension of New START is going very fast," the senior diplomat said.

Ryabkov emphasized that it is necessary to not waste time and be focused on work to achieve a certain new modern configuration in arms control. "We should not only find an answer to the question if there are chances to ease tensions but also to the question of what should a new ‘security equation’ in our relations look like. Russia is also ready for this work," he added.

The Russia-US summit will take place in Geneva on June 16.