May and Putin reportedly had a brief telephone conversation, in which they were thought to have agreed that relations between the two countries should be better and raised hopes of strengthening the relationship between the former Cold War adversaries.
Advertisement
They agreed to meet face to face at the G20 meeting of world leaders in China next month.
“While discussing topical issues in Russian-British relations, both sides expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of cooperation in the political, trade and economic spheres”, it said.
The former Prime Minister led the charge for sanctions against Russian Federation for its actions in Ukraine.
Russian-British ties have been strained by the 2006 poisoning death of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, the Ukraine crisis and other issues.
The leaders agreed to intensify “joint work on a number of fronts”, including air transportation safety, the Kremlin added. It said the phone call took place at the initiative of Britain.
The Kremlin added that the United Kingdom is to send representatives to the Russian city of Arkhangelsk to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the first British WWII convoy, “Operation Dervish”.
UK Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that Theresa May would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the China’s city of Hangzhou.
A May spokeswoman said the leaders agreed that Britain and Russian Federation faced common threats from terrorism, and that cooperation on aviation security was a vital part of the counter-terrorism effort.
Meanwhile, Mr Putin has also been trying to fix ties with Turkey, meeting the country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St Petersburg.
Advertisement
The incident led to Moscow slapping sanctions on Ankara. Speaking by phone Tuesday, the two leaders hinted there is room for improvement in soured relations.
