On January 28, US President Donald Trump called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for the first time since his inauguration in Washington, DC on January 20. During the phone conversation, the two Presidents discussed improving cooperation between their countries in the fight against terrorism and the importance of rebuilding bilateral trade and economic ties.
Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Russian Upper House's International Affairs Committee, remained upbeat about the results of the Saturday phone conversation between Putin and Trump. "Yesterday's conversation was supposed to return content and meaning to the Russian-American dialogue, something that really happened," Kosachev said, Sputnik reported.
He specifically drew attention to the fact that the two leaders touched upon "practically all" of the topics of mutual interest during the conversation. "I would like to hope for mutual interest, not only the Russian side's, in shifting to a new type of relationship," Kosachev said.
For his part, the head of the Russian Lower House's Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky suggested that Moscow and Washington must push for a joint fight against international terrorism, which can lead to the creation of a broad anti-terrorist coalition in Syria.
Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the Russian Upper House's International Affairs Committee, said in turn that Trump will most likely build a partnership with Moscow. Trump will continue to show such an approach to resolving international problems in the future because he is a pragmatic person and providing US interests is a priority for him, according to Dzhabarov.
It is important to note that both leaders reportedly supported the idea of improving "real coordination" between their nations in the fight against Daesh and other terrorist groups active in Syria. Trump and Putin also expressed their willingness to work together to "develop and stabilize" US-Russia interaction and assured each other that their nations' citizens view the other's positively.
