FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Russian Defense Ministry Says It’s Ready for Cooperation with U.S. Military

July 18, 2018 (EIRNS)—The Russian Defense Ministry, yesterday, issued a statement announcing that it was ready for further cooperation with the U.S. military in a number of areas.

“The Russian Defense Ministry is ready for practical implementation of the agreements in the sphere of international security reached by Russian and U.S. Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, at their Monday’s summit in Helsinki,”

said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, reports TASS.

“The Russian Defense Ministry is ready to enliven contact with the U.S. colleagues, between our General Staffs and via other communication channels, to discuss extension of the START Treaty, cooperation in Syria, and other topical issues of military security,”

he stressed.

Not long afterward, in what Reuters claimed as an exclusive, it cited unnamed sources that Secretary of Defense James Mattis is open to the possibility of meeting directly with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. There have been no meetings between the U.S. and Russian defense ministers since 2015. The two U.S. officials who spoke anonymously to Reuters, did not suggest, however, that Mattis was actively seeking discussions with Shoigu, either in person or by telephone.

The Pentagon declined to comment, except to say that Mattis has not received any invitation from Shoigu to talk. Mattis, who is described as “an outspoken critic of Moscow who placed threats from Russia and China at the center of last year’s U.S. National Defense Strategy,” has not been publicly opposed to dialogue, reports Reuters. But things are changing, dramatically, as a result of the Helsinki Summit.