Albright, Ivanov praise Russia-US cooperation, urge work on Mideast settlement

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov (L) shakes hands 

with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albrightin a 

hotel at Oslo International Airport Gardermoen 

13 April 1999. (AFP Photo)

Former foreign relations bosses of Russia and United States published an article together saying the two nations must join forces to resolve various international issues, such as the current crises in Syria and Iran.

In the joint statement published by the Foreign Policy magazine, Igor Ivanov and Madeleine Albright note that though Moscow and Washington still have a number of disagreements in international politics, the peoples of the two countries must concentrate more on examples of successive cooperation and apply this experience to future goals.

According to recent research by Russia’s Levada Center, the attitude of Russians towards the US as a nation is gradually deteriorating. The share of those who hold that the US play a negative role in the international politics has risen from 43 to 50 percent over the past year. The number Russians who said that the US themselves are not living by the international laws they want to impose on others has grown from 67 to 71 percent. Only 10 percent of those polled said they saw some positive aspects in the US foreign policy.

The list of achievements includes reducing nuclear arms, countering terrorism, combatting nuclear proliferation and stabilizing Afghanistan. The former top diplomats insist that the cooperation can be further developed suggesting to set the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons and preventing Iran from developing its own nuclear weapons as primary objectives.

“With a positive track record on Syria and Iran, our two countries will be in a much better position to reconcile their differences on issues such as missile defense, new steps in nuclear arms reductions, and other regional crises” Albright and Ivanov write.

The article is not the first example of the two politicians’ joint effort in journalism. In January 2012 their work was published by the New York Times and in it they suggested a series of measures for improving the bilateral relations between Russia and the United States.

The plans included a speedup in nuclear disarmament and deeper cooperation between Russia and NATO for protecting Europe from external threats. In addition, Albright and Ivanov said that the two powers should never stop holding dialogue over their disagreements.

Madeleine Albright occupied the post of the US State Secretary from 1997 till 2001, while Igor Ivanov worked as Russian Foreign Minister from 1998 to 2004.