Rand Paul, who is currently heading a US legislative delegation to Russia, held a meeting with Russian Federation Council lawmakers led by foreign affairs committee head Konstantin Kosachev.
"We want to have open relations and even with countries with which we may have disagreements. I believe that we need to have more cultural exchanges, more exchanges between our legislative bodies, more open lines of communication. We need to have a dialogue between our foreign relations committees and my hope is that with the time we will improve dialogue between our countries," Paul said.
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The US official also invited Russian lawmakers to visit Washington to hold talks with their American counterparts. Paul added later that it might be possible to organize a meeting in a third country.
"I am pleased to announce that we will be furthering this conversation. We have invited members of the foreign affairs committee of Russia to come to the United States to meet with us in Washington and we're also trying to arrange meetings in a third neutral county as well," Paul told reporters.