Lavrov calls for reset of Washington ties

Moscow called for the resetting of relations with Washington on Sunday, saying the situation in Ukraine that led to sanctions against Russia was improving thanks to Russian peace initiatives.

Washington and the NATO alliance accuse Moscow of supporting a rebellion in eastern Ukraine, imposing financial sanctions that have been repeatedly tightened since Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in March.

The conflict has brought relations between Moscow and the West to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War. US President Barack Obama said last week that the sanctions could be lifted if Russia takes the path of peace and diplomacy.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was time to repeat the "reset", Washington's term for an attempt to improve relations early in Obama's presidency.

"We are absolutely interested in bringing the ties to normal, but it was not us who destroyed them. Now they require what the American would probably call a 'reset'," Lavrov said, according to a transcript of the interview on his ministry's website.

"The current US administration is destroying today much of the cooperation structure that it created itself along with us. Most likely, something more will come up - a reset No 2 or a Reset 2.0," he said.

Lavrov said that thanks to "initiatives of the Russian president", the situation was improving on the ground in Ukraine, where a cease-fire has been in place for several weeks.

'Bossing world around'

Moscow also used its annual appearance at the UN General Assembly on Saturday to accuse the US and its Western allies of bossing the world around, complaining they were attempting to dictate to everyone "what is good and evil".

The speech by Lavrov to the 193-nation assembly was the latest example of the deteriorating relations between Moscow and Western powers.

"The US-led Western alliance that portrays itself as a champion of democracy, rule of law and human rights within individual countries ... (is) rejecting the democratic principle of sovereign equality of states enshrined in the UN Charter and trying to decide for everyone what is good or evil," he said.

"Washington has openly declared its right to unilateral use of force anywhere to uphold its own interests," Lavrov added. "Military interference has become a norm - even despite the dismal outcome of all power operations that the US has carried out over the recent years."

(China Daily 09/29/2014 page12)