Op-Ed Contributors

Theirs is still an uncertain future

By Wang Yusheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-03 08:02

US-Russian relations seem to have improved over the past few months, with the two countries taking measures to make a success of the "fresh start" that US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promised a year ago.

Obama embarked on his "Burger Diplomacy" when Medvedev visited the US in June. His move was aimed at portraying the two heads of state's close relationship. The US supported Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). Moscow, on its part, pledged its support for fresh sanctions against Iran (with limits, though) and some logistical help to the US-led fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan. And the two countries signed the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty a year after Obama outlined his vision of a nuclear-free world.

These developments, coupled with Russia's "credential report" on foreign affairs (which proposed to build closer ties with the developed world, especially the US and the European Union member states), convinced some international observers that Moscow was "shifting West-ward" and taking a more cooperative approach toward Washington.

But this is a big misunderstanding.

After the erstwhile Soviet Union disintegrated, Russia had placed high hopes on the US. But that appeared to change after Vladimir Putin became the Russia's president. Russia became more assertive in international affairs and seemed like it was countering US initiatives in the international arena. But all through, it attached great importance to US-Russian relations and hoped to become a genuine partner of America. That can be said to be Russia's way of "hiding its light under a bushel".

The problem was that Washington didn't appreciate or respect Moscow's good intentions. The George W. Bush administration adopted an increasingly unilateral approach in its foreign policy, especially after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US.

After 9/11, Putin sympathized with Washington, supported the US-led war in Afghanistan and lent a helping hand in logistics. But Bush continued to promote NATO's eastward expansion, proposed by his predecessor Bill Clinton. Under the banner of its "war on terror" the US began "infiltrating" Central Asia and the Trans-Caucasian region and plotting "color revolutions" in Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Ukraine, squeezing Russia's strategic space further.

Facing the aggressive moves of the US, Russia carried out some selective tough "counterattacks", prompting the Bush administration to later define US-Russian relations as "selective confrontation" and "selective cooperation".

At the first meeting of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last March, Clinton gave Lavrov an oversized red button labeled "reset", indicating an end of the Bush administration's acrimonious relations with Moscow, and propounded a new diplomatic approach that would depend more on "smart power".

After that, the two sides engaged in a series tentative contacts and finally reached a "positive agreement" on cooperation and coordination. If the new approach to bilateral relations continues to play a positive role, it would be in line with the wishes of the two countries' leaders and conducive to international peace and development.