Lavrov Tells Washington Media, We Trust Trump Wants Improved Relations

Dec. 11, 2019 (EIRNS)—Speaking to reporters after his White House meeting yesterday with President Donald Trump, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was very positive about Russian relations with President Trump:

“As far as [U.S.] relations with Russia are concerned, we have no reasons to doubt that President Donald Trump sincerely realizes benefits of good Russian-U.S. relations for Americans, for American businesses, for the U.S. in general and for the global situation,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by TASS, and said that such relations “should contain no element of favoritism to anyone” and “be based on the balance of interests, pragmatism and mutual benefits.”

“We are aware that not everyone in the U.S. shares our point of view. [Certain forces] are trying to slow down the normalization of our relations by all means, to impose more and more sanctions” on Russia, he said.

One reporter pretended to ask, “As you know, the President last time you were here [May 10, 2017] disclosed some highly classified information during your meeting. I wanted to know if anything, to your knowledge, has been discussed today that would be considered highly classified?” To which the unflappable Lavrov replied:

“I can only know the answer to your second question from what you are going to write. At our first meeting with President Trump, no one disclosed any classified or confidential information, as has been said many times. If anyone believes differently, we would like to know what specific information was being referred to in this story, which is already becoming surreal.

“I don’t know what you will regard as classified information. We have spoken about things I have described to you honestly, almost word for word. Think about this. If you find any secret, you will have a scoop.”

Asked about the fact that he arrived in the midst of the impeachment process against Trump and a several draft Senate bills on sanctions, Lavrov joked:

“It is a coincidence that our delegation arrived in Washington on the day when new sanctions were being discussed. Before that, there was a question about our arrival coinciding with the discussion of the impeachment. It seems to me that no matter what day we choose to come to Washington, it would be a day of sanctions, impeachment or something like that.”