US senators on rare visit to Moscow ahead of Putin-Trump summit

Republican US senators met with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on a rare visit to Moscow today ahead of a summit between the countries' presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

The US delegation is in Russia until Thursday, ahead of the summit planned in Helsinki on July 16, at a time of high tension between Russia and the West.

"We recognise that the world is better off, I believe, if Russia and the US have fewer tensions, get along a little better, maybe put aside some differences," Senator Richard Shelby said during today's meeting with Lavrov at the Russian foreign ministry.

"We are competitors, but we don't necessarily need to be adversaries," said Shelby, a Republican senator from Alabama, in televised comments.

"We're hoping that coming out of the Putin-Trump meeting in Helsinki, it will be the beginning, maybe, of a new day," Shelby added.

"We will have to wait and see." Lavrov, speaking in English, said he hoped that the US senators' visit "will symbolise the resumption of relations between the (US and Russian) parliaments."
For his part, Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin welcomed the delegation and thanked US ambassador in Russia Jon Huntsman for the "initiative of inter-parliamentary dialogue."