President Barack Obama said Wednesday that despite deep disagreements that have bubbled to the surface in recent months, he has not “written off” the United States’ important relationship with Russia.
Speaking at a news conference in Stockholm, Obama highlighted how the U.S. and Russia have cooperated together on matter related to both national securtiy and the economy but acknowledged that the improvements to the relationship have stalled as of late.
“Now, there’s no doubt that, as i indicated a while back, we’ve kind of hit a wall in terms of additional progress,” Obama said. “But I have not written off the idea that the united states and russia are going to continue to have common interests, even as we have some very profund differences on some other issues. And where our interests overlap, we should pursue common action. Where we’ve got differences, we should be candid about them, try to manage those differences but not sugarcoat them.”
Obama indicated that perhaps the biggest difference between the two countries is centered around the issue of Syria, an ally of Russia.
