US, Russia "want to travel many miles together"--Hillary Clinton.

WASHNINGTON, June 29 (Itar-Tass) - The United States and Russia, upon
pushing the button of "resetting" of their bilateral relations, have been
on a journey together. "The reset was like turning the car on; now we are
on the journey together. And we want to travel many miles over the next
many years together", US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in
an Itar-Tass interview, when describing prospects for Russia-US
partnership.
Without giving a straight answer what would be the next stage after
the "reset", Mrs. Clinton expressed the conviction that it is essential to
"move into a deep, growing relationship". "I really believe that Russia
and the United States have an opportunity in a very complex world to
provide leadership in ways that my father or gradnfather could not have
imagined", said the Secretary of State whose father had een a successful
businessman and served in the US Navy during the Second World War.
From Hillary Clinton's point of view, the next step in
Washington-Moscow relations must be "to keep building trust, building
understanding, building confidence at all levels". While welcoming the
real development of intergovernmental contacts in recent years, she at the
same time emphasized that "The best foundation for a strong relationship
are (contacts) between the people of the two countries. So that's why I
think it's essential that we do what we're doing today -- to talk more and
understand each other more".
US President Barack Obama is expected in Russia this year for an
officially yet unannounced visit. Hillary Clinton did not confirm Mr.
Obama's trip but stressed the significance and importance of the visits
already made. "The summits that have been held, both in the United States
and in Russia, have been very important because it's not only been the
official meetings. There have been opportunitites for more informal
settings," she said.
Besides, "Both presidents have reached out to the larger society," the
Secretary of State recalled, citing as an example Dmitry Medvedev's trip
to Silicon Valley in California. "Now we have a Russian innovation center
and we have two American companies working in Russia to establish an
innovation center like Silicon Valley," she pointed out.
Mrs. Clinton said the range of subjects touched upon during her
meetings with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov is so wide
that they invariably "run out of time". "So we have set aside a very long
meeting when he comes to Washington this time because we have many areas
to discuss," she said referring to Lavrov's expected arrival in Washingto
for a visit soon. Mrs Clinton confirmed that the agenda of the forthcoming
talks would include items concerning visas, adoption of children. She also
intends to discuss Iran's nuclear program and look into the possibility of
progress on anti-missile defense.
Together with Lavrov, Mrs. Clinton coordinates the activities of the
Russia-US Presidential bilateral commission. She believes that on the
whole the Commission "has made a lot of progress", and not only in major
political areas but also in the area of cultural cooperation. She sees a
patent reaffirmation of this in the forthvoming Seasons of America in
Russia, in "everything from ballet to jazz, to hip-hop".
Thefulltext of the interview of US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton will be broadcast by the Russia-24 TV channel and published in
Rossiiskaya Gazeta.