…President Trump and I believe that better relations with Russia may be possible. But as the president has said, we’ll see.

But negotiations between parties always begin with a recognition and a respect for the position of each party. And with the sanctions that President Trump will sign this week, codifying sanctions that have been in place by the United States, our country is sending a very clear message and calling on our European allies to join us in a very clear message that we mean what we say and say what we mean; that Russia’s destabilizing activities in Ukraine, their support for rogue regimes like Iran and Syria and North Korea, that their posture has to change.

But we believe that by being clear and being strong, that we can pursue a dialogue based on mutual understanding. And President Trump holds the view that it’s been a lack of clarity and commitment by the United States that’s created much of the instability in the world today. …

And so President Trump believes that we can have peace through strength. And strong and clear positions, we believe, can create a foundation where authentic dialogue may – we hope – result in better relations and in the resolution of long-standing disputes in Ukraine, in Georgia, and in other areas of the world. …

President Trump will sign the Russia sanctions bill soon. …

And let me say that in signing the sanction, our president and our Congress are speaking with a unified voice that those matters that the president spoke about so eloquently in Warsaw, about Russian destabilizing activities, about Russia’s efforts to support rogue regimes – that has to change.

For there to be a change in our relationship with Russia, Russia has to change its behavior. And by these sanctions, by my presence here, by the president’s powerful affirmation of the objectives and the values of our alliance in the West, our hope is that we will move toward better relations and a better future and a more peaceful world as a result.

– U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence, responding to questions during a joint press conference with Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili in Tbilisi, Georgia, on August 1.