Asia-Pacific

US sets to improve ties with Russia

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-05 16:04

MOSCOW - The United States wishes to improve ties with Russia, though they will keep on defending their own political interests, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday in Armenian capital Yerevan.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (L) listens to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan during their meeting in Yerevan, July 4, 2010. [Xinhua]

Clinton, who visited Armenia under her trip to Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region, said the United States' and Russian views proved to move closer concerning Iran and Afghanistan issues.

But that doesn't mean that there should be agreement on all issues, she added.

Clinton said that the United States will not agree with Moscow's stance on Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"We believe that it is possible to reach a certain cooperation program without freezing relations," she was cited by Interfax news agency as saying.

Clinton said the United States cooperated with OSCE Minsk Group over the settlement of Nagorny-Karabakh issue, but concerning Russian-Georgian conflict in 2008, the US is on Georgia's side.

Long-standing tensions between Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia turned violent during a five-day war in August 2008, when Tbilisi attacked South Ossetia, where most residents are Russian passport holders, in an attempt to bring it back under central control.

Clinton said that people all over the world should be convinced that the United States and Russia would closely cooperate on solving all the problems.

The secretary of state also said that Russia and the United States will continue working on cooperation.