18 Mar, 10:00

Normalizing Russia-US relations to improve situation in Central Europe — top diplomat

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto expressed hoped that "President Trump and President Putin can make an agreement about how to normalize US-Russian relations and how to make peace in Ukraine"

NEW DELHI, March 18. /TASS/. Hungary hopes that the upcoming talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US leader Donald Trump will lead to the normalization of relations between the two countries and peace in Ukraine, which will improve the situation in Central Europe, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said, answering a TASS question on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue political science conference.

"I do hope that they will come to an agreement about how to normalize the US-Russia relations, because we have an experience of history in the central part of Europe, namely that the better the relationship between US and Russia the better for us," he stated.

"Whenever the US and Russia had bad relationship, it was bad to us as well. But whenever they had a good relationship, our situation was much better and our region was much safer. So, what we do hope for is that President Trump and President Putin can make an agreement about how to normalize US-Russian relations and how to make peace in Ukraine," the foreign minister added.

According to him, if "they can make an agreement how to make peace," then "peace can return to Central Europe."

The talk

A phone conversation between Putin and Trump is scheduled for Tuesday. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed preparations for the call the day before. Earlier, the US held a series of bilateral talks with both Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Saudi Arabia. The US-Russia talks focused on aligning Moscow's and Washington's positions and increasing contacts on the Ukraine issue. The US-Ukraine meeting resulted in a joint statement, in which Kiev agreed to a 30-day ceasefire, and Washington resumed intelligence transfers and military aid to Ukraine. US officials later stated that they now consider it necessary to obtain Russia's consent for the ceasefire.

On March 13, Putin explained that Russia supports the ceasefire "in principle, but there are nuances." However, he emphasized that Moscow supports the idea of "ending the conflict through peaceful means."

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Vladimir Putin Hungary Donald Trump

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