Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today said the United States and Russia are resetting relations during an interview with Mr. Mikhail Gusman of ITAR-TASS News Agency.
During in the interview, Ms. Clinton stressed the importance of building an understanding with Russia.
“There are so many relationships between Americans and Russians – historical, cultural, family, in every walk of life. And I think there is a lot in common between Russians and Americans, and so we have been working very hard to really deepen that relationship for the 21st century. And our governments, of course, work together, and I think our so-called reset has been very positive and the relationship among our government officials has really evolved.” -Ms. Clinton
Ms. Clinton highlighted that the best foundation for a strong relationship are between the people of the two countries. She underlined that it’s essential to talk more and understand each other.
She said the Presidential Medvedev-Obama Commission was established because it provided an organizing mechanism for their governments and for their citizens to find ways to cooperate.
“On sports exchanges – there were a group of young Russian basketball players who came and played basketball with President Obama on the White House court.” -Ms. Clinton
She added that United States and Russia have important and growing set of activities between their two governments, and then the commission takes that and then adds onto it cultural exchanges, artistic exchanges.
She said both countries are going to have a year-long exchange of cultural programming coming to Russia – the seasons of America, everything from ballet to jazz to hip-hop.
“The reset was a political decision taken by the governments of both countries, led by our presidents. Now we want to move into a very deep, growing relationship. The reset was like turning the car on; now we’re on the journey together. And we want to travel many miles over the next many years together.” -Ms. Clinton
Ms. Clinton pointed out that she really believed that Russia and the United States have an opportunity in a very complex world to provide leadership in ways that her father or grandfather could not have imagined.
“So the next step is to keep building trust, building understanding, building confidence at all levels.” -Ms. Clinton
