U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov Thursday that Washington still intended to have a cooperative and productive relationship with Moscow despite of a mass expulsion of Russian diplomats.
Speaking at a joint news conference with visiting Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer, Powell said he had a "long conversation" earlier Thursday with Ivanov about the expulsions.
Powell said: "As a result of the Hanssen case, and as a result of our reviewing their presence in the country, I met with the Russian ambassador yesterday and informed him of our decision to expel four Russian intelligence officers who were directly implicated in the Hanssen case."
"I made clear to the ambassador the actions the Russian government needs to take to address our long-standing concern about the level of their intelligence presence in the United States," he said.
"I said to him that with this action we took yesterday, that I took with the Russian ambassador, we consider this matter closed," Powell said.
"We have important interests in maintaining cooperative and productive relations with Russia, and we intend to continue working to advance those interests," he added.
(Xinhua 03/23/2001)
