Russian Foreign Minister Optimistic About Russian-US TiesRussia hopes that its relations with the United States have strode over the "difficult period" connected with the coming of the new US administration, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Friday.After the Putin-Bush Ljubljana summit held last month, the Russian-US relation has entered a new and responsible stage, while joint efforts are really required in bilateral cooperation on many issues, said Ivanov when meeting with the Minority Leader of the US House Richard Gephardt. "The main agreement reached by the Russian and U.S. leaders in Ljubljana was that both countries are interested in stable and predictable relations." "We believe that the Russian-U.S. political dialogue should become more active at all levels," the foreign minister said. Ivanov also mentioned about the next two Russian-U.S. summits, first at the Genoa G-8 summit in late July and then at the APEC Shanghai summit in October, adding that he was in frequent contact with his U.S. counterpart Colin Powell. Gephardt, who led a delegation of the U.S. democratic minority congressmen, voiced support for Russia's current reform at a press conference following his Friday talk with Ivanov. Senate Howard Berman, another conference participant, said that the U.S. Congress was aware of the efforts the Russian government is making to conduct economic reforms, to create a new Criminal Code and to ensure the independence of the courts. In response to a question on the delegation's position towards the national missile defense system, Berman said the U.S. should find contact on defense issues with all its partners, including Russia, adding that he believed this problem should be solved by negotiations. |
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