Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
GENEVA (AP) - Say what?
Something got lost in translation between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday _ and it served to illustrate the level of distrust in U.S.-Russian relations.
It happened when the two diplomats delivered opening statements before their high-stakes talks about how to inventory and dismantle Syria's chemical weapons.
As their joint appearance ended, Kerry asked a Russian translator to repeat the end of Lavrov's remarks, saying his headset had cut out briefly.
When it was clear that Kerry wasn't going to get an immediate retranslation, Lavrov tried to assure him that he hadn't missed anything controversial.
"It was OK, John, don't worry," Lavrov said.
"You want me to take your word for it?" Kerry said. "It's a little early for that."
At least they were still smiling.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
