Defence Minister and General of the Army Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met on August 9 for consultations in Washington DC with their US counterparts, Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel.
The talks, held in the 2+2 format, focused on matters of strategic stability, including missile defence and further nuclear disarmament. Issues related to regional security and military-political cooperation between Russia and the United States were also high on the agenda.
Ahead of the consultations, Mr Shoigu met with Mr Hagel to discuss cooperation between their two departments and US-Russian military cooperation at large.
The Russian Defence Minister told reporters after the meeting that an agreement had been reached to step up contact at the deputy defence minister level, as well as to make video links a part of the negotiation process and to ensure that next year's cooperation between the two departments is as intensive as possible.
Sergei Shoigu also said that US defence officials had accepted an invitation to attend the West 2013 exercise as observers. According to Mr Shoigu, inviting foreign observers to military exercises and inspections could become a wider practice with time. This Russian initiative is intended as a confidence-building measure, he explained.
Source: Ministry of Defence
