Russia will boost relations with the United States if equal security will be guaranteed, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday, when the new U.S. President Barack Obama was sworn in.
"We could seriously advance in our relations with Washington ... if they provide one more important dimension of our relations -- that is the principles of equal security," Interfax quoted the top Russian diplomat as saying.
Lavrov urged Washington to deal with bilateral relations under the principles raised in last April's Sochi Declaration, a "strategic framework" to guide future bilateral relations signed during a one-day summit between former presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush.
He noted that the equal security was "stipulated by many international documents," and "no side can ensure its security through infringing the security of another one."
Lavrov hailed the Russian-U.S. cooperation in such fields as nuclear non-proliferation, arms control, the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime, as well as in the economy, trade and two-way investments.
Russian-U.S. ties dropped during Bush's eight-year presidency due to arrays of rows, such as Washington's plan to establish anti- ballistic missile shield in Central Europe and its supports for Ukraine and Georgia's bids for NATO membership.
(Xinhua News Agency January 21, 2009)
