UPDATE - Russia Stands For Restoring, Maintaining Dialogue With US - Ambassador

UPDATE - Russia Stands for Restoring, Maintaining Dialogue With US - Ambassador

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2019) Russia seeks restoring and maintaining dialogue with the United States and believes that such dialogue is in the interest of the entire world, Russia's ambassador in Washington Anatoly Antonov said.

"We stand for restoring and maintaining dialogue with the American side - the White House, State Department and other government institutions, the Congress and the experts' community," Antonov said on Monday. "We are confident that normalization of Russian-US relations serves the interests not only our countries, but also the entire global community."

Antonov spoke at the event at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, celebrating the centenary of his Soviet-era predecessor Anatoly Dobrynin.

The Russian ambassador said he was "a little jealous" of his predecessor who had been a welcome guest of successive US presidents and senior officials interested in maintaining ties with the Soviet Union.

Antonov emphasized that Russia and the United States - the two largest nuclear powers and permanent members of the UN Security Council - bear a special responsibility for peace and stability.

"There is a wide range of issues requiring constructive cooperation between Moscow and Washington for their successful resolution," Antonov said. "Among them are strategic stability issue, fight against global terrorism, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, resolution of regional conflicts, space exploration, development of economic ties and cultural ties."

Dobrynin's tenure stretched from 1962 to 1986 during the governance of five Soviet leaders and six US presidents, and included such pivotal moments as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US war in Vietnam, the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the strategic arms control talks.

Dobrynin's diplomatic presence in Washington provided a crucial element of stability during some of the most tense episodes of the Cold War, according to the organizers of the centenary celebration.