Phone conversation between the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, and the US Secretary of State, John Kerry

PRESS RELEASE

On the 27 July, a phone conversation took place between the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, and the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, at the initiative of the Americans.

The Ukrainian crisis was the focus of their attention. The heads of the foreign services agreed that despite all the differences in their approaches, it is important to achieve an immediate cease fire in the area of the internal Ukrainian conflict and start negotiations between the confronting parties, according to the agreements included in the Geneva Statement by Russia, the United States, the EU and Ukraine of the 17 April.

Sergey Lavrov also emphasised that Russia invited OSCE observers to their Gukovo and Donetsk checkpoints on the border with Ukraine and is waiting for them to arrive there without delay. He asked John Kerry to instruct his subordinates to stop creating obstacles for their respective OSCE work.

They exchanged opinions about the situation in the Middle East, where John Kerry has recently made a work-related visit.

The ministers also discussed the state of affairs in the bilateral Russian-American dialogue about different aspects of non-proliferation problems.

27 July 2014