U.S. President Donald Trump has warned Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov against any “attempts to interfere” in U.S. elections and “urged Moscow to resolve the conflict with Ukraine,” the White House said of their meeting in Washington.
Mr. Trump on December 10 emphasized supporting “effective global arms control” that includes not only Russia, but also China, the White House said.
He also asked Russia for support on preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons and to ensure the denuclearization of North Korea.
Mr. Lavrov’s visit came a day after four-way talks were held in Paris between Russia, France, Germany, and Ukraine to find a lasting peace in the eastern Ukraine conflict.
Earlier in the day, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Mr. Lavrov, both of whom showed few signs of progress on key issues hampering U.S.-Russia relations. However, Mr. Pompeo expressed hope that would change.
Messrs. Pompeo and Lavrov discussed a wide range of international and bilateral issues including the denuclearization of North Korea, the change in leadership in Venezuela, peace in Ukraine, as well as Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. elections and the future of nuclear-weapons treaties.
U.S.-Russia relations have hit lows not seen since the Cold War following Russia’s forcible annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March 2014, its interference in U.S. elections, disinformation campaigns, and sponsorship of killings abroad.
Russia denies meddling in other countries’ internal affairs and of any involvement in killings abroad, despite substantial evidence to the contrary.
However, Mr. Pompeo expressed hope that the two countries would get through their problems. “We should have a better relationship – the United States and Russia – than we have had in the last few years and we have been working on that,” he said during a press conference following his meeting with Mr. Lavrov.
The secretary of state reiterated the U.S. position that Crimea belongs to Ukraine and that Russia must fulfill its obligations to bring peace to eastern Ukraine, where fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 13,000 people since April 2014.
The U.S. secretary of state said he spent a “fair amount of time” talking about Ukraine with Mr. Lavrov, who attended peace talks between Presidents Putin and Zelenskyy in Paris the previous day.
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