19 Mar, 15:23

US envoy calls Washington-Moscow relations important

Steve Witkoff pointed to the need to normalize relations and maintain dialogue between Russia and the US

NEW YORK, March 19. /TASS/. The administration of US President Donald Trump believes that relations with Russia are extremely important and touch on all major foreign policy issues, US president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said.

"Russia is a critical relationship for us. It's critical as it affects all of the things out there: China, Iran, the Middle East," he told Bloomberg in an interview.

"These two leaders coming together (Trump and Putin - TASS) and having conversations about nuclear proliferation, which they did yesterday (Tuesday - TASS) was enormously positive. This is enormously beneficial for the world at large," Witkoff added, referring to the March 18 telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump. According to the envoy, the US leader "believes in this."

"He [Trump] believes in peace. He believes in engaging, he believes in using peace through strength to to create a better world for everybody, and with that could come a drop in defense budgets. Take all that money and spend it on things that matter more than waging war all the time," the US leader's special envoy added. "That's his policy," Witkoff emphasized, referring to Trump.

The envoy also pointed to the need to normalize relations and maintain dialogue between Russia and the US. "I think normalization is about having real conversation," he explained.

Putin-Trump telephone conversation

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump discussed the situation in Ukraine, conditions for avoiding escalation and a number of international issues by telephone on March 18. According to the Kremlin press service, Putin agreed with the US leader's proposal that the parties to the conflict in Ukraine mutually refrain from attacks on energy infrastructure facilities for 30 days. According to the White House, the sides also agreed to begin technical talks on the introduction of a ceasefire in the Black Sea. A key condition for working to resolve the conflict should be "a complete halt to foreign military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Kiev," the Kremlin emphasized.

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