But such a good-will gesture coincided with two separate military exercises by the United States and Russia near Russia's southern boarder, and analysts remain skeptical about whether the so called Foreign Policy Concept could heal the lingering Russia-West rifts.
RUSSIA-U.S. STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP
"It is necessary to switch over Russian-U.S. relations to the state of strategic partnership, to overstep barriers of strategic principles of the past," says the document posted Tuesday on the Kremlin Web site.
Russia and the United States should "concentrate on real threats, and where differences persist, to work on their settlement in the spirit of mutual respect," says the paper ratified by President Dmitry Medvedev.
Moscow will work along with Washington in taking confidence-building measures, ensuring transparency in space explorations, anti-missile defense and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, securing development of peaceful nuclear power, enhancing cooperation in countering terrorism and other challenges, it says.
However, the often soft-spoken Medvedev Tuesday slammed a U.S. proposal to deploy missile shield components in Central Europe, which have soured bilateral ties since it was raised in early 2007.
"We will be forced to adequately react to this. Our American and European partners have been warned," he said in a speech to Russian ambassadors.
Also Tuesday, the United States and Georgia launched a Pentagon-funded joint military exercise in the South Caucasus region, while Russian troops were taking part in another drill near the border region.
Both Moscow and Washington have denied any connection between the war games which involved some 1,000 U.S. troops near Georgia's capital Tbilisi and 8,000 Russian troops.
Many analysts, however, believe that the military exercises were held against the backdrop of a deteriorating relations between Russia and the U.S.-backed Georgia that is seeking NATO membership.
PAN-EUROPE SECURITY TREATY
The policy guidelines, hardly diverged from the previous ones during the years under Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin, also highlighted Russia's relations with its European partners.
Russia hopes to build an open and democratic collective security and cooperation system across Europe, it says.
A unified Europe should be based on equal cooperation among Russia, the European Union (EU) and the United States, it says.
Medvedev proposed in a Russian-EU summit in June an all-European summit for preparing a pan-European security agreement, which is seen as an effort to reduce the EU's security dependence on the United States.
But analysts say that such a deal is not likely to be reached any time soon as Europe has been divided into an eastward-expanding NATO-EU bloc, including Georgia and Ukraine, and the shrinking Russia-CIS Collective Security Treaty zone.
"Is it a realistic approach? Not really. I find it hard to imagine a magician-diplomat who could cobble together a security agreement from this motley crew," said Vladimir Frolov, former diplomat and a Moscow-based thinktank chief, in a comment on the Russia Profile.
Security concerns in Europe have especially heightened due to the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo and the U.S. anti-missile plans.
Medvedev Tuesday called Kosovo's independence, backed by many nations, a "sad" event that violated international law, and said the planned deployment of U.S. missile defense facilities in central Europe would undermine security.
MULTILATERAL TIES PRIORITY
In spite of the confrontations with the western nations, Russia has repeatedly called for multilateral cooperation and reform of international institutions to ensure global security.
"I am convinced that with the end of Cold War the underlying reasons for most of bloc politics and bloc discipline simply disappeared," Medvedev said Tuesday.
"It's absolutely essential to identify and resist the attempt of national or group interests to ignore international law," said the president who took power in May.
"The experience of recent years, especially in Iraq and the Middle East, shows that today's global problems cannot be resolved through the direct use of force," he said.
"We need reform of international institutions and a strengthened role for the United Nations. This position of ours remains unchanged," he said.
The Foreign Policy Concept also echoed such an idea by slamming unilateralism and advocating multilateral cooperation.
The United Nations should play a core role in adjusting international relations and coordinating policies, it says.
Russia will actively engage itself in the Group of Eight, a club of industrialized countries, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and other international organizations, it says.
Russia will also enhance cooperation with emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil, it adds.
Only by doing so, can Russia seek to address its thorny issues with the west and regain its influence on the world arena, observers say.
