Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
Moscow, June 12 /Xinhua/ — Moscow is open to joint painstaking work on settling the situation in Ukraine, including eliminating the root causes of the crisis, and on the rest of the extensive agenda of Russian-American relations, which have begun to gradually “unfreeze.” The choice between scenarios of confrontation and pragmatic interaction between Russia and the United States is up to the American side. This was stated in an interview with TASS on Wednesday by the new Russian ambassador to the United States, Alexander Darchiev.
“After the pogrom in Russian-American relations, caused by the previous administration, which openly declared that it would seek to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, the intention declared by the new team in the White House to restore interstate relations and bring common sense to them gives a certain hope for the best,” noted A. Darchiev.
He noted that the tasks set for him as the Russian ambassador are to take full advantage of the opened “window of opportunity” to improve bilateral cooperation. It is also necessary to remove numerous barriers and sanctions restrictions, focusing in the long term on the two countries moving towards a model of non-confrontational coexistence, the ambassador added.
According to him, it is difficult to do this overnight due to a number of problematic issues. At the same time, the Russian side is persistently working on specific areas of normalization of bilateral relations. “We are talking, in particular, about the State Department easing the absurd restrictions on communication with Russian diplomats and participation in joint public events,” A. Darchiev explained.
He noted that, within the framework of the permanent mechanism of regular consultations, a negotiation process has been launched on the return of six diplomatic properties belonging to Russia that were actually confiscated by the US authorities in 2016-2018.
In addition, A. Darchiev pointed out that another priority area is the restoration of direct air traffic between Russia and the United States, interrupted by Washington in 2022 with the closure of its airspace and subsequent reciprocal steps by the Russian side. “This is a multifaceted matter that requires negotiations with the involvement of aviation authorities, which we expect to launch in the near future,” the ambassador said, adding that a substantive discussion is also underway on simplifying the visa issuance procedure, which currently takes up to a year or more. –0–