Moscow, Washington should 'update' bilateral agenda - senior Russian senator
RIA-Novosti
Moscow, 1 July: Russia and the USA should update the "agenda" for bilateral talks and consider the possibility of jointly settling problems in other regions of the world, Mikhail Margelov, the chairman of the Russian Federation Council's International Affairs Committee, has said.
"The problems which are created for international community by piracy off the Somali coast or uncontrolled arms trafficking in the sub-Saharan zone are those new threats which Russia and the USA should see together," Margelov told RIA Novosti. (Passage omitted)
Margelov said that at the current stage of Russian-US relations the first discussion point was the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), but it is necessary to look for new approaches to cooperation in those regions of the world which "are neither American nor Russian backyards".
Margelov stressed the importance of seeking new spheres of cooperation since the agenda of bilateral relations has changed little in recent years.
"If we cooperate, we do it selectively and on the same issues that the USSR and the USA used to cooperate on in the time of detente. These issues are nuclear non-proliferation and bringing peace to the wider Middle East. And are those new challenges and threats? Given that it was cancer at that time and today it is A(H1N1) flu, the difference is not great, Margelov said.
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