Russia, US Admit That They Cannot Think the Same, but They Must Prevent War — Lavrov

According to Russian Foreign Minister, where interests do not coincide, "the duty of responsible powers is to prevent this disagreement from degenerating into confrontation"

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

© Mikhail Metzel/ TASS

MOSCOW, March 2. /TASS/. Moscow and Washington have admitted at talks in Riyadh that they cannot think the same on all issues on the global agenda, but both sides are obliged to prevent war, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Krasnaya Zvezda.

"We will never think the same on every issue of world politics. We acknowledged this in Riyadh and the Americans acknowledged it. In fact, they themselves said this," he said.

Lavrov noted that Russia and the US, "on the one hand, can find common interests and many mutually beneficial things, and on the other hand, they are obliged not to go to war in case their interests diverge."

"Where we see a coincidence of interests, common sense suggests that it would be foolish not to take advantage of it to translate it into some practical actions and obtain mutually beneficial results," the minister explained. According to him, where interests do not coincide, "the duty of responsible powers is to prevent this disagreement from degenerating into confrontation".

Lavrov noted that this is precisely the format in which relations between the United States and China are built. "They have a huge number of disagreements," Lavrov explained. "Despite all this, the dialogue between Beijing and Washington has never been interrupted. I believe that this is exactly the model that should exist in relations between any two states. In particular, between Russia and the United States," he said.

The minister added that "an absolutely normal conversation between two delegations" took place in Riyadh. "What is striking is that this was perceived as a sensation. This means that our Western partners, during the term of [former US President] Joe Biden, managed to bring world public opinion to the point where it perceives a normal conversation as something out of the ordinary," he said.