SUKHUM, August 16. /TASS/. The meeting of the Presidents of Russia and the United States Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska gives hope for progress in relations between the countries. This opinion was expressed to TASS by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia Oleg Bartsits, commenting on the meeting.

"It is impossible not to welcome the very fact of holding a meeting between two world leaders - Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and American leader Donald Trump. Of course, this was preceded by serious work in today's environment, and it is obvious that this required extra efforts from representatives of both countries. When relations between Russia and the collective West are at the most difficult point in the very long history of relations, we must welcome the courage and will of the presidents of Russia and the United States to hold such a meeting. We expect progress in bilateral relations between the Russian Federation and the United States," Bartsits said.

According to the head of the Abkhazian Foreign Ministry, "the multiplicative effect of warming relations between the two world powers can give a lot to many countries, so that colossal processes of global normalization, improvement of the international political climate and unfreezing of many lines of cooperation between different countries, not only between Russia and the United States, can be launched."

The Abkhazian Foreign Minister believes that serious changes on the Ukrainian track should be expected from the meeting between Putin and Trump. 

"Of course, we hope, and it seems to me that we should expect very serious changes on the Ukrainian track, based on the positive feedback given by both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump that the meeting was constructive and beneficial. Despite the fact that the details are completely unknown, we should still hope for possible progress on the Ukrainian track. I think that there is still a lot to do for the teams of the two presidents, and we hope, like millions of people around the world, for progress and movement toward warming and improving relations between the two world powers," Bartsits said.