U.S. Lawmakers in Russia Hope Putin-Trump Talks Improve Ties

U.S. Republican lawmakers met Russia’s foreign minister and parliamentary counterparts in Moscow on Tuesday, expressing hopes that a presidential summit this month will ease tensions.

While U.S.-Russia ties are “strained,” the two countries have “some common interests around the world that we could hopefully work together on,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “We are competitors, but we don’t necessarily need to be adversaries.”