Ryabkov says window of opportunity for agreements with new US administration

There is a small window of opportunity for agreements with the new administration of US President Donald Trump. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said this at the Institute of the United States and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ISKRAN) on January 22.

"We cannot say anything today about the degree of bargainability of the incoming administration, but still. Compared to the hopelessness in all aspects of the previous White House master, there is today a window of opportunity, albeit a small one," TASS quoted him as saying.

Ryabkov stressed the importance of understanding how to build relations with Washington to maximize opportunities and minimize risks.

According to him, the coming period in Russian-US and international relations will be accompanied "not just with a significant number of challenges, but with an increased pace of change and a high degree of unpredictability and weak predictability."

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Earlier, on January 19, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the administration of former U .S. President Joe Biden had done tremendous damage to U.S.-Russian relations.

Prior to that, on January 14, Ryabkov said that Moscow was considering the possibility of telephone contacts between Russia and the United States after Trump's inauguration. He emphasized that the dialog between the countries should be based on mutual respect and equality.

On January 1, US Ambassador to Russia Lynn Tracy said that Washington was ready for a constructive and respectful dialog with Moscow despite the existing disagreements. She emphasized that there is a great "need for diplomatic efforts" at the moment, and therefore the American side needs to "continue to preserve existing ties and build new ones" between Russia and the United States.

On December 22, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is ready to normalize relations with the United States, but not to the detriment of its interests. In this way, the head of state answered the question whether it was possible to resuscitate Russian-American relations, which were in decline due to Washington's steps.