After talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has hailed a "fresh start" in relations between Moscow and Washington and predicted that the two sides would complete a new strategic arms agreement by the end of the year.

The much-anticipated March 6 meeting in Geneva, part of Clinton's whirlwind tour of the Middle East and Europe, is widely seen as the first step in a "reset" in U.S.-Russian relations that Vice President Joseph Biden called for in a speech in Munich in February.

"We are resetting [our relationship] and, because we are resetting, the minister and I have an overload of work," Clinton said. "This is one of those instances where our commitment to pursue this reset relationship means that we have a very broad agenda."

Relations have deteriorated in recent years due to Moscow's staunch opposition to U.S. support for admitting former Soviet states Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, which Moscow sees as its sphere of influence, and over Washington's plans to place components of a missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland.

https://www.rferl.org/a/After_Meeting_Russian_Foreign_Minister_Clinton_Hails_Fresh_Start__/1505696.html