Russian MFA Board Discussed Russia-U.S. Relations

A detailed discussion of the current state and outlook for the Russian-U.S. relations was at the center of the Russian MFA Board meeting on April 1.
It was underscored that Russia and the U.S. share a special responsibility for ensuring strategic stability in the world and that the level of mutual trust between our nations is a major factor of the international security.
For the past 4 years, Russia and the U.S. were able to achieve important results –signing of the New START Treaty and the Agreement on simplifying visa requirements as well as joint work on Russia’s accession to the WTO. The "reset" of the bilateral relations announced by the President Obama in 2009 played its role.
However, alongside moving forward in some areas there was a lack of progress in others, e.g. on AMD issue. Bilateral interaction suffered tangible damage because of such anti-Russian actions as the “Magnitsky Act”, illegitimate court decisions on the Schneerson collection and the U.S. authorities’ failure to provide proper protection of the rights of adopted Russian children.
We positively assess an intention demonstrated recently by the U.S. Administration to return to conducting of the bilateral dialogue in a constructive manner. We are ready for a thorough joint work, including within the framework of the Russia-U.S. Bilateral Presidential Commission, based on the fundamental principles of equal rights, real consideration of each other's interests and non-interference into internal affairs. The key to ensure stability of the relations is to build-up trade and economic and investment ties as well as to expand direct contacts between societies and people.
The Board outlined the specific areas for the Russian MFA actions on further development of the Russia-U.S. relations.