Russian, US top diplomats discuss ties

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed bilateral relations in a phone conversation on Wednesday, the Russia Foreign Ministry said.

"They exchanged views on several aspects of the joint agenda, including bilateral relations, and efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis and overcome the conflict in Ukraine based on the Minsk agreements of February 12, 2015," the ministry said in a press release, Xinhua reported.

They agreed on the need to work to fulfil the task, set in a telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, of overcoming existing differences through professional dialogue in the interests of normalizing the atmosphere of Russian-US interaction, it said.

It is the first phone call of Pompeo as US Secretary of State with Lavrov.

--IANS

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