Tillerson: Current US-Russia Relations Are 'Not Healthy for the World'

The whole world is suffering from the low level of Washington-Moscow relations, according to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The current state of relations between Washington and Moscow is "not healthy" for the United States and the whole world, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday.

"I think it's largely viewed that it is not healthy for the world. It's certainly not healthy for us. For the American people, our national security interest and otherwise, for this relationship to remain at this low level. Whether we can improve it or not remains to be seen," Tillerson told the NBC broadcaster.

The secretary of state added that the term "reset" would not be applicable to the US-Russian relations.

"I think terms like having 'a reset' are overused. You cannot reset. You cannot erase the past. You cannot start with a clean slate… We're starting with the slate we have," Tillerson said.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held meetings with Tillerson and with US President Donald Trump. The politicians discussed a number of issues, including the one related to the seizure of diplomatic compounds.

US-Russian relations worsened since 2014 against the background of Ukrainian crisis and Crimea's reunification with Russia. The United States and its allies in Europe imposed rounds of sanctions against Russia, blaming Moscow for interfering with Ukraine's inner affairs. In addition, Washington accused Kremlin of meddling in the 2016 presidential election in the United States, which resulted in the victory of republican candidate Trump.

Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations calling them absurd and warning that the Western sanctions are counterproductive and undermine global stability.