Joe Biden, the US vice president, on Saturday set a new tone in Washington’s relations with Russia and Iran, declaring that the new US administration wants to “press the reset button” in its dealings with Moscow and would be “willing to talk to” the regime in Tehran.

Delivering the the Obama administration’s first major foreign policy speech to world leaders assembled at the annual Munich security conference, Mr Biden said that Washington and Moscow could not agree on everything, citing the Georgia conflict and referring to Russia’s resistance to its neighbours joining Nato.