MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump gained invaluable experience during his first presidential term regarding the importance of choosing his inner circle, as relations between Washington and Moscow soured back then due to a hodgepodge of "random" people being in his ear, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.
"I believe that he [US President Trump] gained invaluable experience during his first term in office. First of all, with regard to the importance of choosing his own team. Relations deteriorated mainly because Trump was surrounded by random people during his first presidential term," Lavrov said in an interview with Russia’s Channel One.
According to Lavrov, although "Trump's entire foreign policy is guided by national interests," the US president understands that other countries, "especially the great powers," also have their own interests.
Russia’s top diplomat noted that these interests don’t always align with each other, but in rare cases when they coincide, "it would be criminal not to use this coincidence to leverage it into some mutually beneficial, joint material projects in the spheres of economy, energy, infrastructure, logistics."
"When these interests do not coincide, and in most cases they do not, responsible powers are obliged to do everything necessary to prevent these differences from turning into confrontation. Especially a heated confrontation," he stressed.
"We have opted to support such an approach. I believe that these are the principles on which relations with all countries should be built," Lavrov added.