Obama seeking to reshape US-Russia relations
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama wants to produce early results after promising to reset relations with Russia, hoping to emerge from a Moscow summit next week with clear progress on reducing both nations’ nuclear arsenals and changing the way the Russian people view the United States.
Obama’s pursuit of a new U.S.-Russia nuclear arms pact to replace one that expires in December has dominated the attention focused on his trip to Moscow, the first stop in a weeklong trek that also will take him to Italy and Ghana.
But White House aides, describing the trip in detail for the first time on Wednesday, sought to put the expectations in broader terms.
That means advancing not just nuclear arms reductions but also cooperation on Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea and the broader threat of the spread of nuclear weapons. Obama plans to spend considerable time not just with Russia’s leaders but also its people in hopes of getting them to reevaluate the United States.
“It’s not, in our view, a zero-sum game that if it’s two points for Russia, it’s negative two for us,” said Michael McFaul, senior director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council. “There are ways that we can cooperate to advance our interests, and at the same time do things with the Russians that are good for them as well.”
U.S.-Russia relations plummeted last year following Russia’s war with the former Soviet nation of Georgia, and other security issues have served as obstacles, including the United States’ pursuit of a missile defense system in Europe and its support of NATO expansion that Russia has seen as encroachment.
The fifth foreign trip of Obama’s presidency will cover an enormous bit of ground, both in distance and in the breadth of topics on the agenda.
Beyond his two days in Moscow, Obama will spend parts of three days in international meetings in L’Aquila, the Italian mountain town that was devastated by an earthquake in April. The Group of Eight powers — the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia — are convening there, a time for leaders to assess their response to a world recession, build momentum toward a global climate deal and cope with the latest crisis in Iran.
Developing economies and African nations will join the meetings at points to extend the geographic reach on matters such as security, trade and energy.
Obama also will meet with Pope Benedict XVI — their first time together — at Vatican City.
And then Obama will head to Ghana, a west African nation that the White House hails as a peaceful democracy on a continent often beset by violence. It will be Obama’s first visit to Africa as president. His plans include a major address and a visit to a castle that once served as a slave-trade hub.
All together, Obama will be gone from Sunday evening until the following Saturday, July 11.
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