Kerry, Hagel Aim To Ease U.S.-Russian Tensions
Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel met with their Russian counterparts for talks in Washington on Friday aiming to repair strained relations with Moscow.
President Obama snubbed Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday when he called off plans to go to Moscow next month for a one-on-one summit. He was reacting to Russia's offer of temporary asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
But on Friday, the diplomats seemed eager to show that the dispute is not some new sort of cold war.
Kerry tried to lighten the mood at the State Department meeting with "the two Sergeis," as calls them.
"Sergei Lavrov and I are old hockey players and we both know that diplomacy, like hockey, can sometimes result in the occasional collision," Kerry said.
But there was no small talk when Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, and Sergei Shoigu, the defense minister, addressed reporters at the embassy later in the day. There, Lavrov recounted a conversation he had with Kerry earlier this year.
The Two-Way
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