This week, I was honored to take part in the Congressional delegation led by @SenShelby and joined by U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman @USEmbRu
During our time in Russia, we met directly with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov @mfa_russia, members of the Russian Duma and several former Russian ambassadors to the United States.
The goal of these meetings was to begin addressing several of the geopolitical challenges facing the US relationship with Russia, including our differences in Syria, Ukraine, the Russian interference in the 2016 election and US sanctions on Russia.
We were blunt in our conversations with the Russians; we expressed our grave concerns about their policies and explained that any involvement in our elections is unacceptable. We stated that we can be competitors without being adversaries.
We also made it clear that we can and should remain in dialogue as we try and work through our policy differences.
We hope to begin an ongoing dialogue with this group and I am personally convinced that future discussions are essential and can be helpful to our long-term relationship with the Russians.
I also believe the upcoming @realDonaldTrump-Putin meetings can build on the work that was done in the past few days in Russia and represent an important opportunity for national security and world peace.
