“Late last night, I spoke with the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau, then with my Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and yesterday morning I also had a conversation with Yuri Ushakov, the foreign policy adviser to the Russian President,” Peter Szijjarto began at his Thursday press conference, responding to a journalist’s question.

Based on these talks, here’s what I can tell you,” he continued. “Yesterday, my Russian colleague, Foreign Minister Lavrov, informed me that today he will hold a phone call with his American counterpart, who President Donald Trump pointed to lead the preparatory discussions on behalf of the United States.