WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden Monday hailed the "reset" in ties with Russia and called for expanding trade with its one-time nemesis.
"The next frontier in our relationship will be building stronger ties of trade and commerce that match the security cooperation we have achieved," he wrote in a column published in Monday's International Herald Tribune, based in Paris.
Biden cited the new START nuclear arms treaty, and U.S.-Russian cooperation on the Afghanistan war and sanctions against Iran and North Korea as triumphs of the first two years of the Obama administration.
He pointed to the major U.S. corporations -- Chevron, PepsiCo, Alcoa, General Electric and Cisco -- that have signed contracts in Russia, and a $2 billion Boeing-Aeroflot signed during his recent visit to Moscow.
"Yet our trade and investment relationship is nowhere near where it could or should be," he wrote, and called for admitting Russia to the World Trade Organization.
Once Russia meets WTO requirements, Biden wrote, the administration will seek to repeal the 1970s Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which tied trade with the Soviet Union to Jewish emigration.
He also warned Russia against "backsliding on democracy."
