Blinken assesses his first meeting with Lavrov

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken believes that his talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which took place last week in Iceland, were constructive and business-like, Report informs.

In an interview with CNN on May 23, Blinken was commenting on the results of his meeting with Lavrov in Reykjavik.

Blinken said he and Lavrov had an "instructive, very business-like conversation over the course of nearly two hours, but President Biden’s been very clear with President Putin. And I repeated what President Biden said to President Putin to Foreign Minister Lavrov, and that’s this, we would prefer to have a more stable, predictable relationship with Russia."

Blinken said a more stable relationship between the US and Russia would be beneficial for both countries and "good for the world."

"And there are clearly areas where it’s in our mutual interest to find ways to cooperate, whether it’s on Afghanistan, whether it’s on so-called strategic stability or arms control agreements, whether it’s on dealing with climate change," Blinken said.

"It’s really important to be very clear about what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and, ultimately, it is up to Russia to decide whether it wants to have that more predictable, stable relationship. We need to test the proposition," Blinken added.