MOSCOW, October 23. /TASS/. Moscow and Washington must make progress in eliminating bilateral irritants, the director of the North Atlantic Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexander Gusarov, said in an interview with the International Affairs Journal.
"It is the directive impulses emanating from our presidents that set the vector and content of our bilateral contacts, including on the topic you mentioned of so-called irritants in our relations," he said. "Specifically, in relation to this topic, these impulses were set by the presidents at the very dawn of their communication at the beginning of last year, when the heads of state agreed to move towards the normalization of our diplomatic relations."
"Since then, quite significant results have been achieved in the form of agreements to improve the operating conditions of our diplomatic missions. This, of course, is not the ultimate dream, we understand that. We need to keep trying to move this cart. For its part, Russia is very ambitious in assessing the range of what is possible on this track," Gusarov said.
He also drew attention to the priorities of the Russian side: first of all, the return to Russia of diplomatic property in that country illegally confiscated under previous US administrations, as well as the resumption of direct air traffic between the two countries. At the same time, according to him, there is not yet sufficient political will on the part of American colleagues, who often try to link these matters with far-fetched regional and international issues.
"As for future rounds [of talks concerning irritants], we assume that before the end of the year, probably another such round could take place. Its specific dates will be agreed upon through channels," he said.