In a series of positive signals to Moscow, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invited Russia to join Washington's missile defense plans on Friday in Brussels, and she subsequently met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva in a bid to reset bilateral ties.
Although relations between the former Cold War foes have seen considerable improvement since U.S. President Barack Obama took office in January, analysts believe it still takes time to further ease the tension.
Press reset button
Weeks ago at the Munich Conference on Security Policy, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden declared the Obama administration's intention to press "the reset button" in U.S.-Russia relations.
In a symbolic gesture, Clinton gave Lavrov a red "reset" button on Friday before their first meeting in Geneva, implying that they would seek a "fresh start" for bilateral relations.
"I would like to present you with a little gift that represents what President Obama and Vice President Biden and I have been saying and that is, we want to reset our relationship and so we will do it together," Clinton said.
Clinton said she and Lavrov had "a very productive meeting of the minds on the range of issues" expected to be broached in future talks.
The talks on arms control and non-proliferation, given priority on the agenda, were "very practical" and "very specific," she said.
Both sides should take the lead in global arms control, which will lay a "position" on the issue for the first meeting between Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a London summit in April, she said.
The top diplomats agreed to strike a new deal by the end of this year to replace the current Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). Clinton also thanked Russia for allowing the United States to transit non-military supplies to Afghanistan via its borders.
"We agreed that on all questions, including those on which we have differences, we will work in the spirit of partnership, honestly and openly," Lavrov said.
In fact, Russia's agreement to allow transit routes for cargo bound for NATO forces in Afghanistan, and the positive signals from the Obama administration are two catalysts for the recent changes, foreign policy analyst Ivan Safranchuk was quoted as saying by the weekly The Moscow News.
Revised missile defense proposals
Just hours before Clinton's meeting with Lavrov, she invited Russia to join Washington's plans to base a missile shield in Eastern Europe, indicating that the Obama administration might not drop the Bush-era plan.
"We believe that Russia and the United States have the opportunity to cooperate on missile defense -- to do joint research and joint development. And even eventually assumingly we can reach such an agreement (on) joint deployment," Clinton told reporters in Brussels.
Former U.S. administration of George W. Bush planned to place 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic which it claimed to protect its European allies from missile threat by "rouge state."
The U.S. plan has met strong objections from Moscow, which insists that the missile defense system, if deployed, will pose a threat to Russia's national security. Medvedev, in his address last November, threatened to counter those deployment with offensive Iskander missiles in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, which is sandwiched by Poland and Lithuania.
Both Moscow and Washington have recently expressed their willingness to mend bilateral relations, which have deteriorated to a post-Cold War low due to an array of rows, including the U.S. missile defense plans.
Russia hopes the new U.S. administration will take a more creative and friendly attitude toward its missile shield plans, Medvedev told Spanish media ahead of his visit to Madrid earlier this month.
In a latest cautious response to the United States, Russian prime minister's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Moscow stood ready to discuss with the United States revised proposals for its missile defense system.
"If the United States somehow reviews its original plan on deploying this shield in Europe or if we actually receive some concrete counteroffer from the United States, which takes into account Moscow's interests, then we will view this as an excellent sign, as this is what we have been talking about from the very start," Peskov said in an interview with the Voice of Russia radio.
It remains unclear whether Moscow is satisfied with the new U.S. missile defense proposals, analysts say, noting that Russia remains opposed to the deployment of a missile shield near its territory.
"We have to work together and create a common shield against all threats. We would like a new structure for all Europeans. The United States and Europe would negotiate on that, but it would have to be global and not fragmented around the Russian frontier," Medvedev said during his visit to Spain.
Despite all the positive signals, the Kremlin and the White House are still at odds over a number of issues, including Kosovo, Georgia and Iran's nuclear issue, so the chances for a recent thaw in Russian-U.S. relations are slim, analysts say.
(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2009)