"I have yet to have a bilateral, a one-on-one, a pullaside [meeting] with a single counterpart in any country… that has not said to me, ‘Please address your relationship with Russia,’" Tillerson told senators. "They believe that worsening this [US-Russian] relationship will ultimately worsen their situation."
Tillerson repeated his characterization of the US-Russian relationship as being at an all-time low, and said the Trump administration wants to solve their differences with diplomacy.
The secretary of state explained that the two countries are working through a list of "irritants," or smaller issues they want to work out, including the return of two seized diplomatic compounds to Russian officials in the United States, and the construction of a new US mission in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.
Earlier, Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the two nations are trying to cooperate in a number of areas, including Syria. He also said it was too early to tell if those efforts would "bear fruit," but they appear to be progressing in a positive way.
