Sunday, February 8, 2009

Russia welcomes Biden offer to "reset" ties


Reuters

Russia welcomed on Sunday an offer by the United States "to press the reset button" on ties with Moscow, in a sign the former Cold War rivals could repair strained ties under President Barack Obama.

Vice President Joe Biden said in a speech to the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday that it was time to end a dangerous drift in ties between Washington and Moscow.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov applauded that message ahead of a meeting with Biden on Sunday, the first high-level meeting between the United States and Russia since Obama took office last month.

Ivanov said Biden's speech was "very positive." Asked specifically what he had found positive in Biden's comments, said "restarting the button."

Moscow has sent contradictory signals over what kind of relationship it wants with Obama's administration.

Ivanov sent a conciliatory message on Friday at the Munich conference, confirming that Russia would abandon plans to deploy Iskander missiles near the Polish border if the United States rethought its plans to deploy a missile shield in Central Europe.

But Moscow also appeared last week to have engineered the closure of an important U.S. military base in Kyrgyzstan.

The exchanges in Munich suggest, however, that ties could improve now that Obama has replaced President George W. Bush, whose administration clashed repeatedly with Russia over the shield plan and Russia's brief war with Georgia last year.


See also:

Washington Post - A Russia Reality Check

AP - Karzai's view of the reconciliation in Afghanistan

Reuters - Georgia's chances to join NATO, up to Tbilisi

AP - Analysis of Iran-US ties

Deutsche Welle - European reactions after Biden's speech

No comments: