(26 Jan 1999) Russian/Eng/Nat
As U-S Secretary of State Madeleine Albright continued her visit to Russia on Tuesday, President Yeltsin sharply criticised steps being taken by the Clinton administration to build a missile defence system.
But despite the disagreements, registered by Yeltsin from his hospital ward in a telephone conversation with Albright, the two sides found common ground on Kosovo.
They agreed to press for a political settlement that gives "substantial autonomy" to ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province.
U-S Secretary of State Madeleine Albright continued her visit to Russia on Tuesday, holding meetings with her Russian opposite number Igor Ivanov.
Albright has not met Boris Yeltsin, who is in hospital being treated for a stomach ulcer, but she told reporters that they talked at length on the telephone.
Yeltsin's health has again been the cause of concern after continued several scares over the past year.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I was very pleased to also have had the chance to speak to President Yeltsin. We spoke for almost half an hour, and as Foreign Minister Ivanov said, we had the possibility of touching a large number of issues that the foreign minister and I have talked about for the last couple of days. I passed along President Clinton's wishes for a speedy recovery."
SUPER CAPTION: Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State
In their second meeting since her arrival in Moscow, Albright and Ivanov met to discuss issues of concern.
Kosovo was high on the agenda.
The two governments issued a statement condemning the recent killings and calling on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to comply with United Nations
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We have also adopted a joint statement about the very dangerous situation in Kosovo, in the wake of the massacre of Kosovo Albanians in Racak. We agree that the killings must be fully investigated and those responsible brought to justice. We insist that the FRY (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) authorities must without delay comply with the resolutions of the UN Security Council particularly with regard to the presence of police and military units in Kosovo."
SUPER CAPTION: Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State
But agreement did not come on all issues.
Albright reiterated the U-S hard line on Iraq insisting that the Russians curb trade links with Baghdad as part of the United Nations sanctions.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We believe that it is very important for the Russian government to enforce its export controls and there needs to be every attempt to control this kind of proliferation because it ultimately is a threat to all of us. So we did discuss it and we are hoping that there will be unilaterally taken action by the Russian government so that we can have greater confidence in how the export legislation works."
SUPER CAPTION:Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State
And Ivanov told journalists that continued U-S strikes on Iraq were a threat to good international relations.
But he held out hope that greater understanding could be achieved with continued dialogue.
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"We are especially unsettled by the use of force without the consent of the UN security council. This will undermine the modern system of international relations. The main thing is that even when there are disagreements problems should be solved taking into account by dialogue the opinions of both sides. In this context we examined the situations in Kosovo and Iraq."
SUPER CAPTION: Igor Ivanov, Russian Foreign Secretary
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