Russia considers no counter-demands to US in response to Tillerson's plan
The Kremlin is unaware of US secretary of state's program to develop constructive relations with Russia
MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. The Kremlin knows nothing about the plan to develop constructive relations with Russia prepared by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
"As for the Tillerson plan the media learned about and we are unaware of yet, it’s better to contact the Foreign Ministry for a comment on the issue," Peskov said.
According to the Kremlin spokesman, Russia considers no counter-demands to the US regarding the normalization of relations in response to Tiillerson’s plan. "No such demands are being prepared. They are discussed in a routine fashion. We let each other know the themes that cause discomfort and annoyance. The range of these themes is known, but for the time being we are unable to say a constructive discussion over them has begun," Peskov said.
The US BuzzFeed media outlet earlier reported citing some sources in the Department of State that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had come up with a plan aimed at developing constructive relations with Russia.
According to BuzzFeed, the classified document prepared by Tillerson contains three major pillars. The first pillar of the framework focuses on efforts aimed at persuading Moscow that a number of steps, which Washington ascribes to Russia, are counterproductive for both sides. The issue at hand is sending arms to the Taliban movement in Afghanistan and the incidents with the US diplomats in Moscow. Washington is to push back in each individual case.
The second pillar envisages cooperation with Russia on the issues that are of strategic interest to the United States, such as the civil war in Syria, the fight against the Islamic State (IS) terror group (outlawed in Russia), denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and joint work in cybersecurity. The third pillar of Tillerson’s framework emphasizes the importance of "strategic stability" in relations with Russia, the media outlet quotes a US official as saying.