President Donald Trump's schedule for Wednesday included a meeting with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a photo of the two meeting, while Lavrov praised the USA, saying his meetings had convinced him the United States administration wanted to cut deals and solve problems. Also attending was Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the US who is at the center of numerous Trump administration's early Russia-related woes. He also sought an expanded investigation into the alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. election, just days before he was sacked.
The only public event on President Trump's calendar the day after he fired FBI Director James Comey amid an ongoing investigation into his campaign's ties with Russian officials was a White House meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"We had a very, very good meeting with Mr Lavrov", Trump told reporters after the talks.
Former White House officials were left to wonder about the security implications of having allowed a Russian photographer unfettered access to the USA president's office. But instead, they were allowed into the Oval Office for a few moments to cover another, previously undisclosed meeting: Between Mr Trump and Mr Henry Kissinger, the Nixon administration's secretary of state.
On Wednesday morning, when the USA press pool was assembled unexpectedly in the West Wing, reporters thought that White House officials might have reconsidered and chose to allow a glimpse of Trump's meeting with the Russians after all.
CNN reported on Tuesday night that federal prosecutors had issued grand jury subpoenas to former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, seeking business records, as part of the probe into Russian interference in the election.
Lavrov, who came to Washington seeking USA support for a Russian plan to create safe zones in Syria, said "concrete mechanisms that we can manage together" were discussed.
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The leaders also discussed Ukraine, and Trump stressed Russia's responsibility to fully put in place a peace agreement. "We have a shared understanding that this must be a step made jointly to put an end to violence in Syria", Lavrov said.
Trump and Lavrov met in private, though both sides cast the session as a sign of ties having improved since the USA leader's assessment of them last month as at an "all-time low". "We're going to stop the killing and the death [in Syria]". USA intelligence agencies have asserted that Moscow meddled in the election to help Trump's chances of victory.
Russian Federation backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war.
Lavrov is speaking in Washington after meeting with President Donald Trump. "Because he was not doing a good job", explained the President. On Wednesday, they focused on areas of budding agreement and Lavrov sought to blame the recent acrimony on former President Barack Obama.
During last year's election campaign, Trump called for better relations with Russian Federation.
Despite the lack of clarity, the possibility of a meeting between Trump and Lavrov would in itself be a sign of some progress. Lavrov asked, with the remarks making it into the official State Department transcript of the event.
"We will look at the proposal, see if it can work", Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Monday. Those zones are envisioned under a deal struck by Russia, Iran and Turkey.
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