Speaking in Moscow, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson came down firmly on the side of improving relations with Russia, despite escalating tensions over the fate of the Syrian regime and allegations of Russian hacking during the 2016 elections.

Tillerson said the relationship between the two nations has hit a low point, and that has to change.

“There is a low level of trust between our two countries. The world’s two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship.”

“There is a low level of trust between our two countries,” Tillerson said, speaking to reporters in a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “The world’s two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship. We further discussed approaches to improving our channels of communication. We had a lengthy exchange of views regarding the situation in Syria and shared perspectives on possible ways forward.”

Tillerson said he wanted to put an end to the “steady degradation” of friendship between Russia and the United States.

To help accomplish that goal, Tillerson said he will form a “working group” with Russia to address lesser issues, so high-level talks can focus on resolving larger points of conflict.

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One such issue is North Korea. Tillerson said he discussed with Lavrov the importance of convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.

But Tillerson said Ukraine remains the largest obstacle to improving the U.S.-Russian relationship. Russia annexed part of Ukraine — Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine — in 2014. Russian-backed rebels continue to clash with Ukrainian government forces.

The United States slapped Russia with serious financial sanctions after the annexation, but Tillerson said sanctions remain in place for now. He said there was no discussion of withdrawing them.

Tillerson also raised the possibility that Russia could be sanctioned further if tampering in the U.S. presidential election is proven.

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Lavrov said such tampering is not proven, and urged a presumption of innocence.

Tillerson was not initially expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his Moscow trip, but Putin decided to meet with Tillerson on Wednesday morning.

Lavrov said Russia understands Tillerson and President Donald Trump “inherited” a lot of issues from President Obama.

“We [had] a long conversation with the President Vladimir Putin of Russia,” said Lavrov. “It lasted for more than two hours … We have taken stock of the current state of our relations ,as well as international issues, and with the many current ones there are certain issues that have been inherited, so to speak, as time bombs from the previous administration, the Obama administration.”

Lavrov said Russia does not want its citizens engaged in hacking and suggested in 2015 working with the U.S. to tackle bad actors in cyberspace.

“The Obama administration turned down this proposal,” Lavrov said, “and in fact, they did not even respond to our offer.”

He said that as the end of the Obama administration approached, U.S. officials suggested the two countries meet.

“But then at the very last minute, the Obama administration changed their mind again,” Lavrov continued. “I guess they were too busy trying to undermine Russia-U.S. ties before the new administration comes in.”

The Tillerson-Lavrov meeting was seen as even more important, as the United States and Russia have been feuding of late about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’ s use of chemical weapons, and the U.S. bombing it provoked.