US Vice President Joe Biden promised a sharp break from the go-it-alone policies of the Bush era in a major speech yesterday, saying it was time to "reset" Washington's ties with Russia and talk to Iran.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, an annual gathering of leaders and defence experts, Biden said the new US administration of President Barack Obama was determined to "set a new tone" in Washington and with its allies.
In the wide-ranging 25-minute address, Biden focused on relations with Moscow, badly strained by Russia's brief war last year with Georgia and US plans to put a missile shield in central Europe.
"The last few years have seen a dangerous drift in relations between Russia and the members of our Alliance," Biden said in the first major foreign policy speech by the new administration. Biden conceded that Washington and Moscow would not agree on everything, citing the Georgia conflict and referring to Russia's resistance to its neighbours joining NATO.
"We will not recognise any nation having a sphere of influence. It will remain our view that sovereign states have the right to make their own decisions and choose their own alliances," Biden said. "But the United States and Russia can disagree and still work together where our interests coincide and they coincide in many places."
In the audience as Biden spoke were the leaders of Germany and France as well as the deputy prime minister of Russia - all countries that clashed with former President George W. Bush over his invasion of Iraq six years ago.
At this same conference in 2003, German foreign minister Joschka Fischer stared down Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, telling him he was "not convinced" by the US case for war.
The atmosphere this year has been far less tense. European countries broadly welcomed Obama's election and Biden's presence at a conference normally attended by the US defence secretary sent an important signal to Europe that the Obama administration was keen to rebuild relations.
"We will engage. We will listen. We will consult. America needs the world, just as I believe the world needs America," Biden said.
In a jibe at the policies of Bush, he vowed to end torture, close the Guantanamo military prison in Cuba and advance democracy "not through its imposition by force from the outside, but by working with moderates" in foreign governments.