MANILA: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Monday he believes Washington and Russia can find a way to ease tensions, saying it wouldn’t be useful to cut ties over the single issue of suspected Russian meddling in the US election.
Tillerson said Russia had also expressed some willingness to resume talks about the crisis in Ukraine, where a 2015 ceasefire between Kiev’s forces and Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country is regularly violated.
"We should find places we can work together... In places we have differences we’re going to have to continue to find ways to address those,” Tillerson told reporters.
Tillerson met his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on the sidelines of an international gathering in Manila on Sunday, where he also asked about Moscow’s retaliation against new US sanctions.
Tillerson said he told Lavrov the US would respond to the Kremlin’s order for it to cut about 60% of its diplomatic staff in Russia by September 1.
"We have not made a decision on how we will respond to Russia’s request to remove US diplomatic personnel...I told him we would respond by September first,” Tillerson said.
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