Foreign

Home page

Foreign

US analysts: Replacement of Jackson-Vanik amendment and improvement of relations with Russia over the regional issues will bring benefits to everyone

10 May 2011 09:14 (UTC +04:00)

Washington. Isabel Levine â€“ APA. Washington analysts worry about Russianâ€™s current foreign and inertial policy in the region as President Dmitri Medvedev is about to move toward the end of his first term in the office, APAâ€™s Washington DC correspondent reports.

The capital based Hudson Institute held a discussion on Russiaâ€™s path to the future especially its policy in the post-soviet region, the ex-soviet countriesâ€™ future and perspectives as well as relations with the US.

American and regional experts, as well as prominent experts on South Caucasus, including Ilan Berman, Vice President of American Foreign Policy Council, Stephen Blank, analyst at the US Army War College, David Sater, Senior Fellow of Hudson Institute and Ariel Cohen, Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, were discussing the topics.

According to the speakers, the frozen conflicts in the region, such as in Georgia and Azerbaijan are still remaining as main agenda of of US-Russia cooperation in the region.

Speaking about the possible cooperation between the two over the Missile Defense issues, Mr. Sater stressed that Russianâ€™s reaction on US missile defense plans in Europe was hysterical as â€œMoscow media treated this as direct threat against Russia, but in fact, it was direct threat against Russiaâ€™s foreign policyâ€.

The experts have also considered the role of Russiaâ€™s neighbors, including Azerbaijan as energy provider for the diversification policy.

Speaking about the regional economy development, the speakers mentioned that the replacement of Jackson-Vanik amendment against Russia and other regional countries is very important.

According to the analysts, improvement of the relations with Russia over the regional issues will bring benefits to everyone.