U.S. Administration Determined To Step Up Ties With Russia, Moscow Approves

Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs greets a statement made by Condoleezza Rice, US National Security Adviser, on prospects of bilateral relations. As she was addressing an annual conference of the American-Russian Business Council a few days ago, Miss Rice advanced a number of essential evaluations of current contacts and further prospects, the ministerial press and information department says in a statement. In particular, Miss Rice highlighted a "spirit of new opportunities" which appeared at bilateral presidential summits in Ljubljana and Genoa to show that the dire Cold War heritage had been buried once and for all, and partnership was entering a thoroughly new stage. The National Security Adviser made special stress on the Russian response to the tragedy of September 11 and spectacular progress of bilateral anti-terror efforts. "We greet this positive spirit of the US Administration in keeping with our principled approach to closer partnership and interaction with the USA," says the ministerial statement. The Foreign Ministry hopes the new level of Russian-US partnership will develop into closer and more efficient teamwork on a wide range of top-priority issues--in particular, economic partnership, and realisation of the necessity to pool in global efforts against new threats and challenges to world stability and security. Closer links are all the more important in the context of upcoming bilateral summits, due October and November, says the statement.