MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a phone call on Saturday and agreed on regular contacts to prepare for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.
The phone call was held at the initiative of the U.S. side, it added.
“The two sides expressed their mutual willingness to interact on pressing international issues, including the settlement around Ukraine, the situation around Palestine and in general in the Middle East and other regional directions,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Sergei Lavrov and Marco Rubio reaffirmed their readiness to work together to restore mutually respectful interstate dialogue in line with the tone set by the presidents.”
Trump and Putin spoke for over an hour on Wednesday, the first known direct contact between U.S. and Russian presidents since Putin had a call with Joe Biden shortly before ordering tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
(Reporting by ReutersEditing by Gareth Jones and Alistair Bell)
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