Washington reaffirms commitment to continuing contacts with Moscow

The United States intends to continue contacts with Russia at any opportunity, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio following his today's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

At the same time, Rubio stressed that a meeting between the presidents of the two countries is not planned at the moment.

"There is no summit scheduled yet... But we are going to continue contacts with the Russian side at any opportunity. Ultimately, the USA and Russia must continue to maintain relations",

Marco Rubio said.

He also added that the US sees opportunities to achieve a settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, and intends to participate in this process.

The announcement follows last week's phone conversation between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, during which they discussed a number of important topics of mutual interest.