Celebrating 90 Years - Foreign Policy Association

Relations Between Russia
and the United States
76 | FOREIGN POLICY ASSOCIATION
(Continued)
known threats. There can be only one option:
cooperating with anyone who shows interest
in cooperation, obviously within the norms
of international law and the United Nations
Charter. Sharing becomes the key concept, with
shared vision, shared analysis, shared burden,
shared responsibility, joint decisions, and joint
action. As a matter of fact, one has hardly any
doubts that within a collective, imaginative
leadership based on these principles, the United
States would still be the first, but the first
among equals. To be a first among equals, one
has to recognize one’s partners as equals.
As to our strategic relationship, I would
like to call bilaterally upon our American
partners to proceed from the assumption that
Russia does not and cannot harbor any hostile
intent against the United States or any other
power. We simply have no rationale for such
hostility. The past ideological rationale is gone.
We are looking for reciprocity in getting rid of
the ideology that used to feed suspicions and
hostility. In any event, there is no strategic or
systemic incompatibility between Russia and
the United States. In an environment where
security and prosperity in the globalizing world
are indivisible, we do not see any reason to cling
to a narrow interpretation of national interests
on issues including strategic stability.
The proposals on missile defense by
President Putin highlight a new and realistic
interpretation of strategic stability issues that
abandons exclusivity and opens these issues
to other countries concerned, primarily in
Europe. The proposals elevate the issues to an
unprecedented degree of confidence. Henry
Kissinger understands the kind of opening this
creates for a qualitative change that betters our
relations in general and takes them to a new
level of strategic allied cooperation. In addition,
universalization in strategic areas would
naturally encourage developments in the field of
nonproliferation. Unilateral actions undermine
trust.
The American university professor Ted
Postal, of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, admits that current U.S. plans to
deploy elements of global missile defense in
Eastern Europe will be just a stepping stone
for subsequent radical modernization. Bases
will pose a considerable threat to Russian
security, which is exactly what we have told
the American side time and time again. We
continue our discussions. We have offered
cooperation in using their radar, which would be
able to detect any suspicious moves and would
provide enough time to take measures that
would preclude the materialization of fears.
Another danger of the unilateral
destruction of strategic stability is that in the
absence of positive economic interdependence
between our countries, such action can
dramatically narrow the very foundations of
our bilateral relationship. Unfortunately, unlike
U.S.-China trade and economic cooperation, the
Russia-U.S. volume of trade and investments
looks very modest. Going unilateral will create
I would like to call bilaterally upon
our American partners to proceed
from the assumption that Russia
does not harbor any hostile intent
against the United States or any
other power. We simply have no
rationale for such hostility.