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Journalism of Courage
On Thursday, Russia and the US called for resolving their differences through close bilateral dialogue as US national security adviser Stephen Hadley sought to ease Russian concerns about American intentions.
At the start of the talks with his visiting US counterpart in the Kremlin, Russian Security Council secretary Igor Ivanov said that Russia-US relations were currently not “cloudless,” but offered to resolve problems in bilateral relations through dialogue.
“We do have disagreements, including those in security matters. It is important that this dialogue should develop and be intensive, and this would help settle these issues,” Ivanov said, referring the tensions between the two countries over the US plans to deploy missile defence systems in Poland and the Czech Republic and the Iranian nuclear problem.
“That is why it is important that our dialogue stays active and continues to develop which would allow us to remove these questions and avoid harming our bilateral relations,” he stressed.
On his part, Hadley said that the US did not “consider President Putin’s speech in Munich as an invitation to confrontation and did not think that his speech was intended that way.”
He said the two sides should seek common grounds to work out to settle their disagreements. “Where we have disagreements we have been able to talk candidly about them and work together constructively,” Hadley said.
Ivanov also demanded to rescind the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which has been restricting US-Russia trade, saying it would be a good signal for the development of relations between the two countries.
