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... terrorism and proliferation, to climate change and rising commodity prices. The United States has an interest in building partnerships to resolve these and other challenges. And so does Russia.
The United States and Russia share an interest in fighting terrorism and violent extremism. We and Russia share an interest in denuclearizing the Korean peninsula and stopping Iran’s rulers from acquiring the world’s deadliest weapons. We and Russia share an interest in a secure Middle East where there is peace between Israelis and Palestinians. And we and Russia share an interest in preventing the Security Council from reverting to the gridlocked institution that it was during the Cold War.
The United States and Russia shared all of these interests on August 7th. And we share them still today on September 18. The Sochi Declaration, signed earlier this year, provided a strategic framework for the United States and Russia to advance our many shared interests.
We will continue, by necessity, to pursue our areas of common concern with Russia. But it would be a real shame if our relationship were never anything more than that – for the best and deepest relationships among states are those that share not only interest, but goals, and aspirations, and values and dreams.
Whatever the differences between our governments, we will not let them obstruct a deepening relationship between the American and Russian people.
So we will continue to sponsor Russian students and teachers and judges and journalists, labor leaders and democratic reformers who want to visit America. We will continue to support Russia’s fight against HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. And we will continue to support all Russians who want a future of liberty for their great nation.
I sincerely hope that the next president and the next secretary of state will visit Russia and will take time to speak with Russian civil society, and will give interviews to Russia’s diminished but still enduring independent media, just as President Bush and I have done.
The United States and our friends and allies – in Europe, but also in the Americas, and Asia, and Africa, and the Middle East – are confident in our vision for the world in this young century and we are moving forward. It is a world in which great power is defined not by spheres of influence or zero-sum competition, or the strong imposing their will on the weak – but by open competition in global markets, trade and development, the independence of nations, respect for human rights, governance by the rule of law, and the defense of freedom.
This vision of the world is not without its problems, or its setbacks, or even its significant crises – as we have seen in recent days. But it is this open, interdependent world, more than any other in history, that offers all human beings a greater opportunity for lives of peace, prosperity, and dignity.
Whether Russia’s leaders overcome their nostalgia for another time, and reconcile themselves to the sources of power and the exercise of power in the 21st century – still remains to be seen. The decision is clearly Russia’s – and Russia’s alone. And we must all hope, for the good of the Russian people, and for the sake of us all, that Russia’s leaders make better and right choices.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
MODERATOR: Thank you so much, Secretary Rice. That was a very compelling and thoughtful speech. The Secretary has agreed to take three questions. Where is the first one? Over here.
QUESTION:  Madame Secretary, Russia is a petro-state, and its level of assertiveness pretty much correlates to the price of oil. The price of oil is down by 30 or 40 percent, and the oil markets look like they’re going to get softer. Would you expect Russian behavior to be at all modified because of the price of oil and its importance to their economy?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, I don’t know if their behavior will be modified. I do know that there are significant vulnerabilities for petro-states that do not diversify. And there are significant vulnerabilities for petro-states that depend on their ability to engage in monopolistic behavior during good times, when those – when the price of oil is down and that monopolistic behavior doesn't pay off in terms of customers. So those are facts that I understand and realities that I understand that are independent of Russia in particular.
I will say that there had been a time when Russia talked a lot about the diversification of its economy because of its – this period of oil boom. But again, half in and half out. It’s difficult to diversify your economy if rule of law and transparency and predictability of contracts is not available. And so whatever the future of the price of oil may portend, I think that the problems in the Russian economy are ones that are there structurally, and they will, of course, be more vulnerable or made worse when commodity prices are, as they are, headed south.
But there are just certain structural problems with being a petro-economy. And if you look at places that have handled it well, for instance like Norway, they have taken very different course, and of course, as a democratic state, have had to take a different course.
MODERATOR: Next question. Over there.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) German Marshall Fund. About the G-8, I just wonder what your thinking is of the G-8 now. Is it time, perhaps, to reinvent it, to make it larger? And how ...