Moscow:
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday that Moscow’s ties with London were at an all-time low when he met British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace for rare talks amid mounting tensions over Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, the level of our cooperation is close to zero and is about to cross the prime meridian and turn negative, which is undesirable,” Shoigu said in comments from Russian news agencies.
He said he hoped for talks “without any escalation and without an even higher temperature” in relations between Russia and the NATO bloc.
Shoigu also accused the West of “gargling” Ukraine with weapons.
“It’s coming from all sides and it’s happening in public. It’s demonstrably being done. Not quite clear why,” he said.
Wallace, who will be accompanied by Tony Radakin, Britain’s chief of defense staff, will also meet with Russia’s powerful chief of staff Valery Gerasimov.
He is the latest Western official to commute to Moscow in a desperate attempt to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine.
Russia has stationed about 100,000 troops near its borders with Ukraine, with the West fearing the Kremlin could order an attack.
Wallace’s visit comes a day after British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss met her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow for talks that seemed fruitless and ended in mutual accusations.
Relations between London and Moscow are at an all-time low, with Russia viewing the UK as particularly hostile to all Western countries.
The last meeting between a British and Russian defense minister took place in 2013.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)