Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon has cited the Karabakh peace process as one of the areas where the USA and Russia work well together.
He described the situation in Georgia, however, as an area where the USA had "fundamental disagreement" with Russia.
Philip Gordon made the comments in testimony on "The State of Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Russia: US Policy Options", given on Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's subcommittee on European affairs.
"Russia and the United States have been effective partners in the development of multilateral solutions to global challenges... As co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, the United States and Russia coordinate closely, along with France, on efforts to achieve a peaceful, negotiated settlement of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh," the assistant secretary of state said in his testimony.
"There are certainly foreign policy issues on which we have different perspectives; these remain the topic of regular discussion," he continued.
"Our governments differ in their preferred responses to events in Syria. We disagree fundamentally about the situation in Georgia. The United States strongly supports Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and has raised consistently and at high levels the need for Russia to fulfill its obligations under the 2008 ceasefire agreement. We have participated in the Geneva talks to help resolve the conflict through direct dialogue between Georgia and Russia. We have repeatedly urged Moscow to provide transparency regarding Russian militarization of the occupied regions and re-establish an international monitoring presence in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"We also remain concerned about the insurgency in the North Caucasus. While we recognize the Russian government’s right and duty to protect its citizens, we remain troubled by security forces who – in the name of fighting the insurgency – have engaged in human rights abuses."
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