Lavrov and Tillerson to meet at UN General Assembly session

"The course is towards their meeting during the high-level week at the UN General Assembly session in New York," Ryabkov said.

Moscow expects positive signals from Washington on the improvement of relations ahead of the meeting.

"It is desirable our leaders and foreign ministers after their meetings issue a generally positive message to their countries and the international community in the form of agreements to resolve at least some of the outstanding problems. Positive signals are crucial to tackling the major issues on the international agenda, be it Syria, the situation on the Korean Peninsula, or Ukraine," Ryabkov said.

"We believe that the time remaining till the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly enables us to finalize such signals and present proposals to the leaders precisely from the angle of how that meeting might cause a direct, healing effect on the situation in bilateral relations and become a tangible contribution to addressing major issues that our countries deal with on the permanent basis.