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Russia signals new optimism on ties with U.S
2009-02-08
MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Russia on Sunday welcomed a pledge by the United States "to press the reset button" on relations with Moscow, in a sign the former Cold War rivals could repair relations under President Barack Obama. Vice President Joe Biden, in a speech at a security conference in Munich, said on Saturday it was time to end a dangerous drift in ties and work with Moscow. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, speaking at a news conference in Munich after meeting Biden on Sunday, said the United States had sent a strong signal about its willingness to cooperate. "It is obvious the new U.S. administration has a very strong desire to change and that inspires optimism," Ivanov said. Relations between Russia and the United States have grown increasingly strained in recent years. Russia's brief war with Georgia last year and its recognition of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia were condemned by the United States. Moscow responded angrily to former President George W. Bush's plans to deploy parts of a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic as defense against perceived threats from countries hostile to Washington, chiefly Iran. It also bristled at Bush's push to bring Russia's neighbors Georgia and Ukraine into the NATO alliance. Obama promised a more pragmatic and less ideological foreign policy, fanning expectations of a thaw in relations with Russia. CONCILIATORY COMMENTS Asked whether Russia would take concrete steps to respond to Washington's overtures, Ivanov was cautious, saying: "It is not an oriental bazaar and we do not trade the way people do in a bazaar." In some of the most conciliatory comments from Russia for some time, he indicated Moscow was prepared to discuss missile threats with Washington and renewed an offer to use existing Russian radar stations in a future defense system. Ivanov reaffirmed that, if the United States scrapped plans to deploy the shield in central Europe, Russia would not follow through on a threat to put its own nuclear missiles near the Polish border. He said he believed the United States was ready to start negotiations soon on disarmament and welcomed Obama's pledge to talk to Iran about its nuclear program. "We welcome any steps aimed at a political settlement of the Iranian nuclear program," Ivanov said. Russia holds a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and is an important player in Western efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program. In his Saturday speech to the annual gathering of world leaders and defense experts, Biden acknowledged that Washington and Moscow would not agree on everything. "But the United States and Russia can disagree and still work together where our interests coincide and they coincide in many places." Until now, Moscow has sent contradictory signals about the kind of relationship it wants with Obama's administration. Last week, the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan said it would close down a U.S. air base on its territory that supplies U.S. forces fighting in Afghanistan. The surprise move coincided with an announcement that Kyrgyzstan would receive more than $2 billion in aid and credit from Russia, raising questions about whether Moscow might have played a role in the decision to close the base. Ivanov denied that was the case. (Reporting by Noah Barkin, David Brunnstrom, Ross Colvin and Kerstin Gehmlich; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
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