Washington declines proposed visit of Medvedev-led delegation to U.S., visit of its delegation to Moscow – Lavrov

MOSCOW. Oct 14 (Interfax) – The United States has rejected the Russian proposal to send a delegation led by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to Washington and a U.S. delegation to Moscow in order to discuss interaction in the Syria situation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

“Actually, we received a formal reply today. It seems the public speech delivered by our president yesterday prompted the Americans to respond to our propositions. We were told they could not send a delegation to Moscow and could not receive a delegation in Washington either,” Lavrov said at the State Duma’s Government Hour on Wednesday.

The proposal to receive a U.S. delegation and to send a Russian delegation led by the prime minister to Washington afterwards was made in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the minister said.

The United States said in its reply that it only wanted to “agree on steps which would prevent incidents,” Lavrov said. “It is a pity because it is important to our servicemen operating in the Syrian airspace and U.S. military pilots to understand who is doing what, who is performing what maneuver, so that accidents can be avoided,” Lavrov said.