In a “recent interview”:http://www.mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/0/01B6FE302A9EF610C325752E003549D6, Russia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Ryabkov said that the April 2008 “Sochi Strategic Framework Declaration”:http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/04/print/20080406-4.html “was conceived as a strategic framework for [U.S.-Russian] relations, not limited to Bush’s tenure.” He also noted that “[t]he Russian side intends to continue work precisely in the Sochi vein.”
Thought I’d highlight some points (aside from the obvious post-START agreement and missile defense cooperation) in the Declaration.
* We are fully committed to preventing the illicit trafficking or *destabilizing accumulations of conventional arms in order to contribute to regional and international security and stability*. The U.S. and Russia will cooperate to ensure that transfers of such weapons do not contribute to the development and enhancement of military capabilities which undermine these goals, as well as to deny conventional arms to terrorists.
* We will work together to address serious differences in areas where our policies do not coincide, including NATO expansion; *development of a package solution that helps restore the viability of the CFE regime and prompt ratification of the Adapted CFE Treaty* by all the States Parties; and certain military activities in space.
* We will cooperate in preparing and ensuring *a successful outcome of the 2010 NPT Review Conference*.
* We remain *committed to political and diplomatic efforts to find a negotiated solution guaranteeing that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes*…Russia’s agreement to deliver nuclear fuel and take back spent fuel from Iran’s nuclear reactor at Bushehr is a *welcome step* that provides Iran a civil nuclear power capability without the need for the indigenous enrichment of uranium or reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
* We will sign in the near future and *work to bring into force the bilateral agreement between the Russian Federation and the United States* that was initialed on June 29, 2007. This agreement will create the necessary legal basis for our cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy and will permit the expansion of such cooperation.
* We will continue to expand and strengthen [the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism] and *fully implement the agreed program of work*.
Anyway, there is something for everyone. “Read it for yourself”:http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/04/print/20080406-4.html.