MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/. The cooperation of Russia and the US on Syria is unsatisfactory and this issue was discussed during a phone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump earlier this week, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
"This work (on Syria) is carried out neither good nor bad," Ushakov said. "This issue was also discussed during a phone conversation between Putin and Trump," he said.
The Kremlin sees a chance of normalizing this work with the new US leader. "Mutual drive has been shown in uniting efforts in the fight against terrorism which has been called a common enemy of Russia and the US," Ushakov said.
"This statement creates not a bad background for the future work on the Syrian issue," he said.
"In the telephone conversation that lasted for about half an hour our readiness was stressed to maintain contacts with a future Administration on the principles of equality, respect for each other’s interests, and non-intervention in each other’s affairs. The US president-elect echoed our readiness," Ushakov said.
"He (Trump), too, is interested in intensive cooperation with our president," Ushakov said. "Trump expressed the readiness to proactively develop relations with Russia as a country, with the Russian leadership and personally with President Putin," Ushakov said.
It is noteworthy, he remarked, that both parties were unanimous in their vision of the current condition of bilateral relations: "in principle it could not have been worse."
"The readiness was expressed to do something to pull the relations out of the depression where they are at the moment. Trump displayed the preparedness not only to normalize them, but to develop them intensively along all lines," Ushakov said, adding that the economy was mentioned in this context.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry are due to meet in the coming days in Lima, Peru, and "the issue will be one on the agenda," Ushakov added.
Kremlin waiting for a signal from Trump's team
Kremlin is waiting for signals from the future US administration to start work on paving the way for a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Elect Donald Trump:
The Kremlin aide said certain dates were not discussed in their telephone conversation on November 14. He said Putin and Trump agreed to continue contacts "to work towards a personal meeting".
"It was not discussed concretely when to hold it, but contacts between representatives of the sides will be held to this respect," Ushakov said. "We don’t know who will represent [the US side], but we will wait for signals," he added.