The White House Saturday described President Donald Trump's hour-long "congratulatory" telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin as "positive" and as a "significant start to improving the relationship" between the nations "that is in need of repair."
"The call lasted approximately one hour and ranged in topics from mutual cooperation in defeating ISIS to efforts in working together to achieve more peace throughout the world, including Syria," the White House said in a statement.
"The positive call was a significant start to improving the relationship between the United States and Russia that is in need of repair.
"Both President Trump and President Putin are hopeful that after today's call the two sides can move quickly to tackle terrorism and other important issues of mutual concern," the statement said.
Putin was among five world leaders Trump called on Saturday, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The calls came before President Trump signed three more executive orders, including one that required the Pentagon to present him with a plan to destroy the Islamic State within 30 days.
In its own statement, Moscow said that "both sides demonstrated a mood for active, joint work on establishing and developing Russian-American cooperation.
"The chat took place in a positive and business-like tone," the Kremlin said, adding that Putin and Trump had agreed to work on setting up their first meeting.
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