Dialogue between Russia and the United States is necessary, and its resumption means a return to normality, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
There are still disagreements between the countries, but, for example, the restoration of the Nord Stream gas pipelines is in the interest of not only Russia and the United States. Thus, European politicians who are against their restoration are "either sick people or suicidal," the Russian diplomat stated.
US President Donald Trump's special envoy for the Middle East,
Steve Witkoff, seems to understand the essence of the Ukraine conflict, but does not clearly see the issue of the ceasefire's timeline because he overestimates European elites trying to strengthen Kiev, the Russian top diplomat pointed out.
Earlier in the month, Witkoff told a US broadcaster that a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine can be achieved in a couple of weeks. Later, in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson, he said that the "largest issue" in the Ukrainian conflict was the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions.
Meanwhile, the work of the five nuclear-weapon states in the P5 format, which includes China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US, has never stopped, and Russia is not against continuing to work in this format, he added.
"On our initiative, an online summit was held in January 2022, when the Gorbachev-Reagan formula that there can be no winner in a nuclear war, and it should never be unleashed was transferred to a five-party format. The entire nuclear 'five' repeated this formula. We are not against continuing to work in this format. By the way, it has never stopped," the diplomat explained.
The United States proposes to expand the P5 group and involve China in the talks, but this is Beijing's business and Russia will respect China's choice, the foreign minister also noted.