MOSCOW. April 11 (Interfax) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's visit to Moscow and his talks here could help resume a full-fledged dialogue between Russia and the U.S., former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said.
"There is no progress on any point of the Russian-U.S. agenda. The recent events in Syria have further worsened the situation. I believe this all is because the parties have never started a full-fledged dialogue," Gorbachev said in an interview with Interfax on Tuesday.
"Let us hope that it [dialogue] begins now," Gorbachev said when asked what he expected from Tillerson's visit to Moscow.
There are two reasons why the resumption of bilateral dialogue was delayed, Gorbachev said. "This is partly because the new administration needs time to get organized and partly because of domestic political tensions within the U.S.," Gorbachev said.
"But I think that there is also something bigger here: we have to acknowledge that the quality of world politics has seriously worsened. All settings in global politics have been disrupted, all priorities and global conflicts are being ignored, and conflicts keep being fueled," Gorbachev said.
Hopefully, both Russia and the U.S. "will be wise enough to overcome whatever hampers the normalization of their relations," Gorbachev said.