Tuesday, June 6, 2017

U.S. Secretary of State Tillerson: President Trump Wants Me To Fix US Relations With Russia



CNN: Tillerson: Trump wants me to fix US-Russia relations

(CNN)President Donald Trump asked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson not to let the ongoing political saga back home stand in the way of improving ties with Moscow, the top US diplomat said Tuesday.

Tillerson wouldn't comment on the ongoing US probes of Russian meddling in the 2016 election "because I have no direct knowledge," he said during an eight-hour visit to New Zealand, where he met Prime Minister Bill English.

But the Secretary of State said Trump sees Russia as an important "global player" and wants Tillerson to focus on stabilizing ties between Washington and Moscow to avoid further deterioration of the diplomatic partnership.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: What caught my attention was not U.S. Secretary of State Tillerson's comments on Russia, but this .... Rex Tillerson: US will defeat ISIS by 'getting into the mosque' (Washington Examiner). The war against radical Islam must not only happen on the battlefield, but also at those who promote this radical viewpoint of Islam in the mosques and in social media.

More News On U.S. Secretary of State Tillerson's Remarks That President Trump Wants Him To Fix The US Relationship With Russia

Trump was clear I should try & restore US-Russia ties – Tillerson -- RT
Trump's 'been clear to me' to try to rebuild Russia ties: Tillerson -- CNBC/Reuters
Tillerson: Trump has been clear he wants to rebuild Russia relationship -- The Hill
Trump Wants 'Reengagement' With Russia, Tillerson Says -- RFE
Tillerson Says Trump Wants Him to Rebuild Relations with Moscow Despite the Russia Probe -- TIME

2 comments:

B.Poster said...

While Islamic terrorism is the most quickly acute threat facing America right now, Russia remains the nation most capable of doing us harm should they choose to do so. As such, fixing these relations would/should be the top foreign policy priority of any sensible POTUS.

While I do not pretend to have all the facts and any time we do anything there is the risk of mistakes as humans are fallible and mistake prone, Mr. Tillerson seems to have been the best person to choose for such an important position. After all he is the one who negotiated the 500 billion dollar oil deal between Russia and Exxon Mobil, a deal that would have been beneficial to both countries that has essentially been lost because certain idiots chose to impose economic sanctions on Russia. Mr. Tillerson managed to negotiate this deal when the Russians could have easily awarded this to any number of non US companies who have greater talent than Exxon Mobil and likely would have done the work for less money than Exxon Mobil would have. As such, to have achieved this, Nr. Tillerson must have established a level of trust among top Russian officials that surpassed that of others. Often times "intangibles" secure business deals. Having someone the Russians have been able to work with constructively in the past can only help us in negotiating with them. Furthermore being a top executive for a major oil company would mean he would likely be very familiar with many of the world's important leaders and would have needed to establish constructive relations with them. Furthermore as a top business person, while falling prey to ideology is not impossible for them, it would seem to be much less likely. Combine the relations built up with the Russians and other foreign leaders over many long years and experience as a top business executive he would seem an excellent choice for the role as Secretary of State. With that said the analysis could be in error and there is still much that can go wrong.

Unknown said...

Is Tillerson going to hand the Kremlin a misspelled Reset button?