Lavrov hopes Russia-US ties will not worsen

Moscow, Oct 20 (IANS/EFE) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed hope Monday that Russia-US relations would not worsen further and said he disagreed that current ties could be characterised as "a cold war."

"Of course, it is not a cold war. It would be more correct to ask where these relations are going. You know they have declined considerably," Lavrov said during a lecture on Russian foreign policy in Moscow.

"I really hope that this decline in the level of interaction has reached its lowest point, at least now there is no further decrease, but there have been no attempts to improve relations, either."

Lavrov added that the frequent meetings between the Russian foreign ministry and the US state department proved that the US understood that the relations between the two countries were "not normal."

Russia's top diplomat also explained that the US would take time in order to reassess its "place in the world" and become aware that the trend towards reinforcing new economic, financial and political authorities "has no alternative".

Lavrov said that the crisis over Ukraine would take time to be resolved and that sanctions imposed by the West on Russia would not help matters.

--IANS/EFE

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