Russia, U.S. have reset their relations, are moving forward - Beyrle
[DJ: Russian text of blog here: http://beyrle.livejournal.com/ ]
MOSCOW. Oct 19 (Interfax) - Russia and the U.S. have successfully "reset" their bilateral relations and are now moving in the direction of a new stage in their relations, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle said in his blog summing up the results of the recent visit by U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Russia.
"We are now moving in the direction of a new stage in our relations, which we foresaw when President Obama first took office in January," Beyrle said in his blog.
"Russian-U.S. relations have recently been characterized by differences and competition. But now I have a feeling that we are entering a period when common interests and cooperation will dominate in them," Beyrle said.
That will take a lot of work, Beyrle said. "However, we firmly intend to create a more constructive basis for cooperation," he said.
During Clinton's visit to Moscow, "the U.S. and Russia reconfirmed their firm intention to sign a new treaty replacing START I in December and tasked our negotiators with conducting intensive work to reach our goal in the next one and a half months," Beyrle said.
The U.S. and Russia "have agreed to work together more closely on missile defense issues to meet the threats and challenges coming from various regions of the world," Beyrle said.
"In addition, we confirmed out common position on the actions that need to be taken in the next weeks and months about the international obligations of Iran, which are related to its uranium enrichment program," Beyrle said.
