Clinton to visit Mideast, Europe

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-28 21:05

Daniel Fried, the assistant secretary of state for European affairs, said Friday the main theme of Clinton's visit to Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday will be "the reconnection of the United States to Europe and a sense of consolidating some of the enormous political goodwill on both sides of the Atlantic, and harnessing it to a common agenda - not an American agenda but a common trans-Atlantic agenda."

On Friday, Clinton is scheduled to meet in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who had a sometimes rocky relationship with Clinton's predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, a Russian affairs specialist.

Lavrov was quoted by Russian news agencies on Friday as saying he expected the Geneva meeting to focus on arms control. That was an issue of great frustration for the Russians during the administration of former President George W. Bush, which abandoned the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty early in his first term in order to accelerate the development of a missile defense opposed by Moscow.

Clinton has said the Obama administration is willing to move ahead quickly on a replacement for the START arms treaty that is due to expire in December, and to consider deeper cuts in nuclear weapons.

Fried said that although the Obama administration is interested in improving relations with Russia, Lavrov will be reminded that the US does not accept the Russian argument that it has a sphere of influence in Central Asia and Eastern Europe that gives Moscow special say on issues like missile defense.

The Obama administration's interest in engaging Russia is tempered by "cautionary notes," Fried said. That includes a concern that Moscow has gone too far in flexing its muscles in places like Georgia, where Russian troops fought a brief war last summer, and in opposing the NATO membership aspirations of countries like Ukraine.

"The most productive way (to move forward with Russia) is to do so building on areas where we have common interests, but also mindful of our differences - not shying away from them, nor abandoning our values and our friends," Fried said. "That makes for a complicated relationship with Russia."

Clinton is scheduled to wind up her trip with a stop in Ankara, Turkey, to discuss a range of topics with senior Turkish government officials, including the Obama review of its strategy for the war in Afghanistan. The Turks think the US should put more focus on expanding and improving the Afghan security forces and on pressing Afghan authorities to reconcile with elements of the Islamic insurgency, rather than on putting tens of thousands more US troops.

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