Washington, Aug 1 (TIWN) US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone conversation regarding bilateral trade and the raging wildfires in Russia's Siberia, the White House has said.

All conversations between these two leaders get a bit of extra scrutiny for obvious reasons, but a few things stand out about this one. For one thing, the Trump administration stayed silent for several hours after the Russian government and media publicized the call earlier today. The Russian statement heralded the call as “a sign that fully-fledged bilateral relations could be restored in the future.”