"The United States is not trying to push Russia out - that is not our objective," said Daniel Fried upon returning from his Central Asian tour of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
Fried said America's objective was to maintain good relations with Central Asian nations and support their reforms.
"A country that does reform will be stable, especially over the longer run," Fried said. "We are not interested in some Great Game. That's something, forgive me, journalists like to write about."
He also said America realized what a special role Russia played for Central Asia.
"Given all the connections of Russia with these countries and large number of ethnic Russians, especially in Kazakhstan, Russia will always have a strong place there," Fried said.
He said the United States and Russia had many common interests in Central Asia.
"We both want to see stability in the region. We both want to see an end of narcotics trafficking, which harms Russia and we don't like it either. We don't want to see Islamist extremists gain in strength. There are a lot of issues which we see in similar ways," Fried said.
He said Russia and the United States should work out common approaches to these issues. "I certainly look forward to talking with Russian colleagues about Central Asia, about developing common approaches," Fried said.
He said Central Asian nations would welcome the joint efforts of the two countries in the region.
"People [there] have good, positive feelings about Russia," he said. "They want to be friends with the United States as well, and I think that can be very healthy."
Fried said the October 10-13 trip of Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. secretary of state, to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan would seek to further consolidate America's cooperation with the region.
"I look forward to discussing her trip with my Russian colleagues and I look forward to work with Russia to advance shared goals in the region," Fried said.
Daniel Fried came to the U.S. Department of State as a member of Rice's team. They had previously worked together on the U.S. National Security Council.
