Ties Between US and Russia Reset Mode

Geneva: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a symbolic “reboot” to improve relations between the two countries when they met in Geneva on Friday.

As a symbolic start to the process, Clinton brought to the meeting a yellow box with a large red “reset” button, which she asked Lavrov to push with her. On either side of the button was a label in English “reset”, and what was supposed to be a Russian translation.

However, Lavrov pointed out to Clinton that there was a mistake in the Russian equivalent and instead of “reset”, the word had been translated as “overload.”

“You’ve made a mistake,” Lavrov told Clinton. “It should be written ‘reset’, but there’s a completely different word here.”

In Russian, the word “peregruzka” means overload, whereas “pereZAgruzka” means reset.

Clinton laughed and promised not to “overload” Russian-US relations.

Clinton and Lavrov are meeting in Geneva to discuss a number of issues on the international agenda, as well as bilateral relations that became increasingly strained during the era of the Bush administration.

This is their first official meeting and is a lead-up to the G20 summit to be held in London April 2, where Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his US counterpart Barack Obama will meet for the first time.

Tags: Russia Reset Mode, Ties Between US