Rex Tillerson tells reporters after meeting with Sergei Lavrvov that US wants Russia to commit to Minsk agreement

The new US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has said he is ready in principle to work with Moscow after meeting his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on the margins of a G20 foreign ministers summit in Bonn on Thursday.

The discussions in Germany amount to the highest-level face-to-face Washington-Moscow contact since the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president.



Tillerson, under attack from Democrats in the US for being close to Moscow, stressed that Russia had a duty to abide by the Minsk peace agreements in Ukraine and said the US would only cooperate practically if it were in the country’s interest to do so.

Separately, James Mattis, the new US defence secretary, said on a visit to Nato in Brussels that it was too early to talk of military cooperation, dealing a blow to Moscow’s hopes of swiftly mending ties with Washington under Trump.

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These opening approaches to Russia by leaders of Trump’s administration were being watched by European leaders looking for reassurance that Trump was not on the verge of tearing up the postwar settlement.

Mattis went out of his way to soothe European fears that Trump was about to abandon Nato, saying the US commitment to article 5 of the Nato alliance, the commitment to mutual self-defence, was rock solid. In turn, European defence and foreign ministers acknowledged the legitimacy of long-standing US demands – predating the advent of Trump – that they increase their defence budgets.

But it is Tillerson – who has kept a relatively low profile amid the turmoil and resignations inside the White House over the past week – who is regarded as the key figure in the Trump administration capable of providing strategic shape to America’s currently opaque foreign policy.

In his brief conversation with Lavrov, described by the latter as productive, Tillerson struck a balance between standing firm on issues such as Ukraine, Iran and nuclear weapons, and trying to find ground from which to build the new counter-terror alliance sought by Trump.

Russia has been thrown by the loss of its closest US ally, Mike Flynn, who resigned on Monday as national security adviser, and by the stream of mixed messages coming out of the White House.

Vladimir Putin had been hoping for a unilateral American lifting of some economic sanctions as a gesture of goodwill, but reports emanating from US intelligence that Trump aides were in regular contact with Russian intelligence officials last year has reduced Trump’s room for manoeuvre and made a grand gesture to the Russian president less likely.

Asked in Brussels whether he believed Russia had interfered in the US presidential elections, Mattis said: “Right now, I would just say there’s very little doubt that they have either interfered or they have attempted to interfere in a number of elections in the democracies.”

Putin, increasingly impatient that Trump’s warmth towards Moscow has borne no tangible fruit, on Thursday urged the US and Russian intelligence agencies to start working together to fight terrorism and complained that “Nato has declared restraining Russia as its official mission” since a summit in Warsaw last year.

No date has yet been set for a meeting between Trump and Putin, but Lavrov said he assumed one would take place.



Tillerson, an oil man with extensive knowledge of Russia, is working without a deputy, and will have felt the loss of other state department staff dismissed by Trump at the end of the transition.

He may find it easiest to seek common ground with Moscow over efforts to defeat Islamic State, but Russia is also after details of Trump’s as yet hazy plan for safe zones in Syria. A separate, multilateral meeting on Syria will be held on Friday at the G20.

Russia is currently driving the peace process in Syria, and talks mainly about enforcing a ceasefire have been held largely under Russian auspices in the Kazakh capital, Astana, with the US reduced to the role of observer status.

UN-sponsored political peace talks are due to resume on 23 February in Geneva, but face a number of roadblocks, including disputes over the distribution of food aid to besieged towns, breaches of the ceasefire, and a dispute between Turkey and Russia over whether the Syrian Kurds should attend.

If the talks go ahead, the US will be watched to see the extent to which it has shifted ground on the future of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. It is expected that the US will now argue in the interests of forming an alliance to defeat Isis in Syria, and allowing Assad to stand in future elections.

There has been a shift of mood in some Middle East states including Egypt and some Gulf states, towards an accommodation with Assad, but only as long as a firm alliance against Iran is maintained.

Tillerson also met Gulf leaders and the British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, in Bonn, where they discussed the civil war in Yemen.

In a statement afterwards, the Foreign Office said there was “absolutely no doubt that the US remains as committed as ever to working closely with us, and other like-minded partners, to face up to aggression and tackle tough problems around the world.”

On Friday EU members at the G20 meeting are expected to press the US to spell out its plans on climate change, including the commitments that the Obama administration made in Paris in 2015.

