Story highlights Rep. Steve Chabot: Trump is right, it would be nice if we got along with Russia

We must not forget that Russia is driven by a desire to restore its former status, he says

Congressman Steve Chabot, a Republican, represents Ohio's First Congressional District and is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. He is also the Chairman of the House Small Business Committee. Follow him on Twitter @RepSteveChabot. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) During and after the recent presidential election, Donald Trump said, "Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along with Russia?" (At the time, the Republican standard-bearer stood in stark contrast to Mitt Romney, who called Russia "our number one geopolitical foe.")

Previous Presidents have attempted to charm the ex-KGB agent into a better relationship. They wound up with little to show for it. President Obama's feckless handling of Russia has been so embarrassing that it may have emboldened Putin to annex Crimea, and terrified NATO allies along Russia's border

Steve Chabot

When Trump takes office on January 20, he will have to contend with a slew of issues that demonstrate the extent to which Russia and America are strategically interdependent: from arms control to China, from radical Islamic terrorism to cyber threats and from nuclear proliferation to the price of energy. For all of the liberal media's mockery of Trump, he's right that dialogue with Moscow is essential, although dialogue with Moscow will be productive only if we talk about the tough issues we disagree on.

Getting along with Russia is a worthy goal, so long as the purpose is to attain a specific set of ends, not friendship for friendship's sake. In international politics, going along to get along can be deadly. Just ask the inhabitants of Czechoslovakia in 1938, Georgia in 2008, or Crimea in 2014 . That does not mean eschewing engagement, abandoning confrontation, or reflexively utilizing one to the exclusion of the other. Instead, engagement and confrontation should each be seen as tools to be used to advance our interests.

In order to have a more productive relationship with Russia, we need to realize four things. First, Russia is still reeling from its loss of great power status. While Winston Churchill famously said , "Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma," our problems with Moscow are driven by its search for prestige, and its loss of relative military and economic power.

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