Russian foreign minister meeting with Obama

[May 07, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has promised to restart Russian relations, but as Russia's foreign minister visits Washington on Thursday, old tensions are emerging.

Sergey Lavrov has appointments with Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton after canceling a May 19 meeting at NATO to protest the alliance's military exercises this week in Georgia.

On Wednesday, Russia announced the expulsion of two Moscow-based NATO officials in a tit-for-tat move after NATO revoked the accreditation of two Russian envoys to alliance headquarters in Brussels.

NATO did not give a reason for the April 30 revocations, but Russia suggested the move was tied to a February espionage scandal in which Moscow was accused of accepting NATO secrets from a spy.

Other issues have caused tension. Washington and Moscow appear divided on how to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions. And while the United States has put its contentious missile defense plans in Europe under review, that disagreement has not been resolved.

But the Obama administration wants to emphasize topics the two sides might agree on: new arms control and nonproliferation talks. They hope to showcase signs of cooperation as Lavrov makes his first visit under the new administration.

U.S. and Russian negotiators have recently begun negotiating to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expires at year's end. Those talks were launched after the first face-to-face meeting between Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last month.

The two leaders appeared to set a new tone in relations, promising cooperation on a host of issues. The Obama administration's attempt to engage Moscow marks a break from the Bush administration, which eschewed extensive arms control negotiations and angered Moscow with its intention to install a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

While the administration has signaled that it may be willing to reconsider the missile defense plans, it has promised to pursue NATO expansion to Georgia and Ukraine and to reject Moscow's claims to a sphere of influence.

"There are some fundamental disagreements that are not going to be patched over by the transition to a new administration," said David Kramer, a former assistant secretary of state, now a Russian specialist at the German Marshall Fund. "There may be a reset button pushed here, but it's unclear that Moscow is prepared to push one."

[Associated Press; By DESMOND BUTLER]

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