As reported, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has drafted his own agenda to persuade President Trump how the administration should approach their relationship with Russia. The article refers to those moments over the first few months of Trump's presidency that has caused tension between both countries, despite allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials last year. In the public view, however, it would appear that the tensions are real, especially over Syria, as regime that serves as an ally to Russian. Buzzfeed originally reported on the classified document which has three pillars in its framework.

First pillar: Aggression

According to Buzzfeed's report titled "The Trump administration has a new plan for dealing with Russia", the first "pillar" addresses reciprocal US aggression towards Russia. When Tillerson went to visit the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin, he reportedly told them that Russia was siding with an unstable partner. This view is a further extension by former Obama administration who have made no qualms about saying that Assad should be ousted from Syria.

The Trump administration has already shown in the first several months of its presidency that it was willing to attack, starting with a symbolic cruise missile attack against a Syrian airbase after the regime used chemical weapons on his own people.

The fight in Raqqa against ISIS was another sign of aggression against the Russian ally, who responded saying that the American presence there was illegitimate.

More recently, the US-led coalition has reportedly downed a Syrian fighter jet for which Russians said they would retaliate as well as the downing of an Iranian-Syrian drone.

The aggressive stance Tillerson refers to in his framework is similar with the actions that have already taken place, saying that if Russia were to take aggressive action against the US and its interest, that the US should push back, according to a US official who is familiar with the framework.

Second pillar: engagement

The second pillar is said to engage with Russia on issues that are of strategic interest to the US.

Much of this engagement is around both countries fighting ISIS in Syria. The Trump White House has already said they have no interest in overthrowing Assad. But this has not been the view shared by Tillerson or even the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, who have both been more outspoken to say that the Assad regime should go.

Other details of the pillar are to get Russia to stop trading with North Korea as they only recently started to again, in America's interest. President Trump has already threatened to attack North Korea and has also reportedly been working with China to put more pressure on Pyongyang through trade. The North Korean government has been persistent with testing ballistic missiles and they to have also threatened to attack the US and its allies using nuclear weapons.

The document also refers to working out what is "fair game" for Russia and the US when it comes to using cyber weapons.

Third pillar: mutual goals

A senior State Department official told Buzzfeed that even though US-Russia relations were "in the gutter" that through the framework established in the classified document, the department wants to make sure those relations don't get "flushed into the sewer." So the third pillar is said to be one that would establish more long-term mutual, geopolitical goals between both countries. Former U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine, Steven Pifer, is mentioned as having looked at a summary of the framework saying it would be a combination of push and pull between enforced by the US and see where they had consensus.

He also mentioned that the framework is similar to a four-point strategy that the Obama administration drafted in 2015 after the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine in 2014. But Pifer also pointed out that if observers have learned anything about the Trump administration is the President is likely to just throw the document out. The international community has appropriately expressed concern with Trump's view of Russia and isn't sure what the framework could mean going forward, as the administration tends to rely on being unpredictable with global relations.
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