Russia: Moscow and Washington maintain highly intensive contacts

MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. Moscow and Washington are maintaining highly intensive contacts at the level of their administrations, and intergovernmental dialogue is proceeding through numerous channels, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told journalists.

"Contacts with the US at a high level, at the level of the administrations, are proceeding very intensively and continuously," he said, noting that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio "set their schedules strictly according to necessity," and therefore it is inappropriate to assess the situation in terms of whether contacts are sufficient or insufficient. "When the need arises, a conversation takes place. I assume that in the coming period there will be new contacts," Ryabkov told journalists. "At the moment, there is no understanding of when they will occur."

"The frequency of their discussions depends, among other things, on whether we are moving forward or not. Progress is slow and difficult. <...> I think there is no need to look for hidden meanings in the fact that contacts occur with a certain frequency. There is always an opportunity to convey signals to one another. The main thing is that the process moves forward. And that is where the problem lies," the deputy minister noted.