Russian Foreign Ministry Official Says It’s Impossible To Restore Full Contacts of Russian, U.S. Military Under Obama

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Russian Foreign Ministry Official Says It’s Impossible To Restore Full Contacts of Russian, U.S. Military Under Obama

Nov. 14, 2016 (EIRNS)—Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Monday that the restoration of full military cooperation between Russia and the Obama administration is impossible.

"I would like to ask the U.S. defense ministry: What does cooperation mean for it? If this is restoring full-fledged contacts between the military—suspended a rather long time ago and unilaterally by the Obama administration—then the issue apparently cannot be solved under the current administration,"

Ryabkov stressed. He pointed to U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s recommendation to President-elect Donald Trump not to cooperate with Russia on Syria as a proof of his argument. (Carter said this on Nov. 11, in an interview on CBS.)

"This is an old position of Obama’s administration, the position, containing contradictions," Ryabkov said.

"On one hand, they declare any cooperation with Russia is of no purpose, while on avoiding incidents in the air, the cooperation does continue,"

referring to the de-confliction agreement between Russia and the United States concerning operation in Syria.

"We are interested no more than the United States in this cooperation, but as the outgoing U.S. administration adheres to this line due to considerations that have no relation to practical work, we’ll proceed from this,"

Ryabkov said.