U.S. President Barack Obama’s “reset” policy toward Russia has hurt America’s position in the world, his Republican rival in the presidential race, Mitt Romney, said in a speech.
Obama’s scrapping of a missile deal with Poland in 2009 as part of the missile shield in Europe was a “unilateral concession to the Russian government,” Romney said at a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Nevada.
But the policy of concessions to Russia has made the White House dependent on the Kremlin, Romney said on late Tuesday.
He also attacked Obama over other foreign policy issues, including Iran and the publication of U.S. diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks whistleblowing site.
“Sadly, this president has diminished American leadership, and we are reaping the consequences,” the former Massachusetts governor said.
Romney, who has previously called Russia America’s “No.1 geopolitical foe,” kicked off on Tuesday a campaign tour that will take him to Britain, Poland, Israel and the Palestinian Territory.
The tour is an apparent bid to close the gap on foreign policy with Obama. A Gallup poll showed last week that 53 percent of Americans think the incumbent president can handle foreign affairs better than Romney, while only 40 percent thought the opposite.