Russia expects Trump administration to achieve greater results in war on terror

Russian Politics & Diplomacy February 07, 2017, 17:46

Russia's top diplomat also said that Trump’s commitment to come to grips with the core of the Ukrainian problems is seen as a "qualitative change" as compared with the position of his predecessor

MOSCOW, February 7. /TASS/. Moscow is confident that the results of the war on terror under the administration of US President Donald Trump will be more significant than under Barack Obama, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told TASS on Tuesday.

"We have always said at all the stages, including during last year’s marathon between me and [former US Secretary of State] John Kerry, between our militaries, which finally ended in the approval of a very specific document on coordination but which was rejected by the US administration, that apart from the procedures of avoiding unforeseen incidents, we should establish real coordination for agreeing targets and delivering strikes against terrorists’ positions," the foreign minister said.

As the Russian foreign minister said, the agreements with the Obama administration on this score had not been fulfilled.

At the same time, the Trump administration "took a specific, even if a one-off action already in the first days of its work in the White House [the provision of terrorists’ coordinates in the province of Aleppo on January 22] in the struggle against the Islamic State terrorist organization [outlawed in Russia]," Russia’s top diplomat said.

"I believe that this characterizes one and the other administration," the Russian foreign minister said.

"To my mind, the incumbent US administration is far less ideologized and far more focused on the specific result," Russia’s top diplomat said.

"I’m confident that with this approach the result will be more significant and weightier," Lavrov said.

Lavrov also said that Trump’s commitment to come to grips with the core of the Ukrainian problems is seen as a "qualitative change" as compared with the position of his predecessor.

"You know what kind of position Donald Trump has taken: he said he wants to come to grips with problems in Ukraine to be able to see how the parties are behaving. So, I think it is a big qualitative change as compared with the Obama administration which sought to demand everything from us and exculpate [Ukrainian President Pyotr] Poroshenko," he said.

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