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MOSCOW—President-elect Donald Trump's top choice for secretary of state has met President Vladimir Putin on several occasions during the course of discussing oil deals in Russia, a spokesman for the Kremlin said Monday.

Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Rex Tillerson, a seasoned deal-maker whose company has a long history of doing business in Russia, has appeared as the top choice for secretary of state in a Trump administration.

"They [Messrs. Putin and Tilerson] have held business meetings. Indeed, the president has met Mr. Tillerson together with his partners in the Russian Federation," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.

Mr. Peskov said the Kremlin would hope to have good relationship with Mr. Tillerson, which could facilitate a constructive relationship between Washington and Moscow.

"Regarding confirmation of whether he has good or bad ties with the Russian Federation, there is a large difference between being a secretary [of state] and being the head of even a very large company," "Therefore, any personal sympathy, so to speak, must take a back seat."

Mr. Putin awarded Mr. Tillerson the Order of Friendship in 2013 for boosting ties between Russia and the U.S. before bilateral relations plunged in the wake of the separatist uprising in Ukraine and Russia's annexation of Crimea. He was given the order after Exxon Mobil clinched an Arctic exploration pact with state-controlled PAO Rosneft.

"He carried out his duties extremely professionally," he said.

Drilling under that pact was later put on hold after the U.S. applied sanctions on Russia over the crisis in Ukraine.

Write to Thomas Grove at thomas.grove@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 12, 2016 09:25 ET (14:25 GMT)

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