During the meeting on Tuesday in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized the need to be guided by the national interests of Russia and the US—and Moscow agrees with this. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after negotiations with the American delegation, reports RIA Novosti.

According to Lavrov, Russia and the US agreed that everything should be done to combine their efforts in geopolitical domains and economic issues.

There are grounds to assume that the American side has begun to understand Russia's position better, Lavrov stated.

"Russia and the US have agreed that when their interests do not coincide, they should not provoke a conflict, but resolve the issues. The parties agreed that a Ukrainian settlement process will be formed in the near future and negotiators will be appointed. During the negotiations, an agreement was reached with the US to create conditions for the full resumption of cooperation between Russia and the US, in parallel with the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict,” the Russian FM noted.

Speaking about the agreements reached, Lavrov first of all noted the need to appoint ambassadors and the agreement on the lifting of restrictions on the work of their diplomatic missions.

“Consultations between Russia and the US on the Ukrainian issue will become regular when both parties appoint negotiating teams,” he explained.

Also, Lavrov stated that he had not seen any information that Russia and the US had allegedly agreed— during the aforesaid negotiations—on a three-phase plan for the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.

“We explained to our American interlocutors that the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine is unacceptable [to Russia]. At the same time, during the negotiations, the US proposed a moratorium on attacks on energy facilities, while Russia explained that it does not attack civilian objects," the Russian FM concluded.