The Guardian: Lavrov spoke about the results of negotiations with the United States.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the talks "very useful," writes The Guardian. Russia and the United States have agreed to remove obstacles preventing adequate cooperation: the countries have begun to prepare negotiators to resolve the Ukrainian crisis.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the talks "very useful" because the parties "did not just listen, but heard each other."
"I have reason to believe that the American side has become more aware of our position," he said.
"The agreements that we have reached: the first, and probably the most urgent and, moreover, not the most difficult, is to ensure the early appointment of Russian ambassadors to the United States and the United States to Russia," Lavrov said after talks in the Saudi capital.
"The second is to remove the obstacles that for many years, first of all, the administration of [former US President Joe] Biden has been building on the direction of our diplomatic missions over the past four years, seriously hindering their work," the minister added.
The process of negotiations between the United States and Russia on Ukraine will begin "as soon as possible" with the appointment of representatives
Lavrov said the parties had agreed to begin the process of peace talks on Ukraine "as soon as possible," and Russia would wait until the United States confirmed its negotiators, after which it would appoint its own.
Repeating three points made earlier by Rubio and Waltz, Lavrov spoke about "creating conditions" for broader cooperation between the United States and Russia, including "resuming consultations on geopolitical issues" and "removing artificial barriers to mutually beneficial economic cooperation."
"We have practically agreed" on the work of the embassies
"As for the Ukrainian issue, I mentioned the agreement that the Americans would appoint a representative, and we would reciprocate. After that, the relevant consultations will begin and will be of a regular nature," Lavrov said.
"We have practically agreed that we need to solve once and for all the problem of the functioning of our diplomatic missions," Lavrov said.
He stressed the "mutual desire to find concrete solutions" on the issue of dialogue, both on international affairs and on economic relations.
Lavrov called the statement of the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry Sikorski fake
Lavrov denied media speculation about a three-step plan for Ukraine, which was previously reported.
"He [Radoslaw Sikorski] does not comment on this plan, he said that he could not disclose the details, that the plan was atypical, but could be very interesting. I asked Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz today what this means, and they said it was fake," Sergey Lavrov said.
The deployment of any NATO forces in Ukraine is "completely unacceptable"
"We noted that President Trump was the first Western leader to say that Ukraine's involvement in NATO was one of the main reasons for what was happening and one of Biden's main mistakes. If Trump had been president, this would never have happened. President Putin has repeatedly stressed that the expansion of NATO and the absorption of Ukraine by the alliance is a direct threat to the Russian Federation and our sovereignty. And today we explained that the appearance of NATO troops, but under a false flag, under the flag of the European Union or under national flags, does not change anything in this regard. Of course, this is completely unacceptable," Lavrov said.
When asked about Zelensky's statement that he would not recognize the outcome of negotiations between the United States and Russia without Ukraine's participation, Sergey Lavrov declined to comment, noting only that President Putin had already covered this issue "in great detail."
