Military talks between the United States and Russia are valuable, but will not take place under the post-2014 U.S. policy which cut off military-to-military talks, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson told Sputnik on March 10, 2015. “I value that, but right now we are still working back to that,” Richardson said when asked about the prospects for communicating with his Russian counterparts.

In 2014, the United States unilaterally suspended its military dialogue with Russia, except at the highest level. The action was in response to Crimea’s vote to rejoin Russia and the West’s allegations of Russian involvement in the Ukrainian conflict, which Moscow rejected and has repeatedly refuted.

During his speech at the New America Foundation conference, Adm. Richardson emphasized the importance of continuing the dialogue with his Chinese counterparts, to establish a “rules-based approach” to preempt the handling of possible incidents at sea.

The United States and Russia both maintain an international presence, operating in overlapping theaters. The two nations are also engaged in combat in Syria, where they set up limited, professional communications to ensure the safety of their aircraft.