The US understands the value of relations with Russia but sees it as its strategic competitor at the current stage, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan told a Defense Writers Group breakfast on Tuesday answering a question from a TASS correspondent.
"Russia continues to be a strategic competitor. And its efforts undermined the West," he noted. In spite of that, he assured that Washington appreciates relations with Moscow.
"Relationships are important. We all understand their value. [But] we are in a strategic competition, and I'll just leave it at that," he said.