Tillerson Says Every Foreign Counterpart Asked to Address US-Russia Relations

© REUTERS / Joe SkipperU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson - Sputnik International
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Rex Tillerson said that every foreign counterpart he has spoken with has asked him to improve US-Russian relations.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R) walks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov before their meeting at the State Department in Washington, U.S - Sputnik International
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday that every foreign counterpart he has spoken with has asked him to improve US-Russian relations.

"I have yet to have a bilateral, a one-on-one, a pullaside [meeting] with a single counterpart in any country… that has not said to me, ‘Please address your relationship with Russia,’" Tillerson told senators. "They believe that worsening this [US-Russian] relationship will ultimately worsen their situation."

Tillerson repeated his characterization of the US-Russian relationship as being at an all-time low, and said the Trump administration wants to solve their differences with diplomacy.

The secretary of state explained that the two countries are working through a list of "irritants," or smaller issues they want to work out, including the return of two seized diplomatic compounds to Russian officials in the United States, and the construction of a new US mission in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.

Earlier, Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the two nations are trying to cooperate in a number of areas, including Syria. He also said it was too early to tell if those efforts would "bear fruit," but they appear to be progressing in a positive way.

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