Moscow expects that the recent meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, has helped re-energise the bilateral dialogue on strategic stability, Russian Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, told Sputnik.
“We assume that as a result of the meeting between Russian and US presidents in Osaka, US officials have received required instructions from their president for activating dialogue on strategic stability,” Antonov said on Friday.
The ambassador noted that a meeting between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov and Andrea Thompson, the US under secretary of state for Arms Control and International Security, which took place in mid-June in Prague, had also helped resume the bilateral talks on strategic stability.
Moscow expected the next meeting between Ryabkov and Thompson to be held on July 17-18 in Geneva, the ambassador said, noting that the sides would determine specific steps for resuming the dialogue, which is “important not only for our countries but the whole international community.”
Russia has repeatedly said that that it was ready for cooperation with Washington for strengthening strategic stability, noting it expected the United States to seek this dialogue, too. The United States, in its turn, has also said its doors were open for the strategic stability dialogue with Russia.
