Feb. 16, 2025 (EIRNS)—As the fur continues to fly regarding last week’s Trump-Putin phone call, the statements by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and, most notably, the speech given by Vice-President J.D. Vance in Munich—the Feb. 14 headline of the online publication Foreign Policy read “Vance Leaves Europe Gobsmacked”—the exchange between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Secretary of State Marc Rubio has gone somewhat under-reported. “On February 15, at the initiative of the American side, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio,” Russia’s read-out begins. It then states the following: “Building on the February 12 telephone conversation between the Presidents of Russia and the United States, the two foreign ministers agreed to maintain an open channel of communication to address longstanding issues in Russian-American relations. Their goal is to remove unilateral barriers inherited from the previous U.S. administration that have hindered mutually beneficial trade, economic and investment cooperation.”
