Friends may have different interests and values, without encountering any conflicts. Conflicts happen not because people are different, but because they do not listen to each other.
Friends are those people who know what means to be together, to stand for a person, to share everything they have, starting from happiness to sadness, or from food to clothes. Usually true friends are people that have common interests, love the same things or go for the same values. However it is generally known that the two different parts of a magnet always attract to each other, and this statement doesn't make an exception in the case of friendship.
Having different views on life doesn't necessarily mean that they will never understand each other and will have a lot of conflicts. People need to be original, need to have something that only belongs to them, which means that everybody is different and there is nothing to be ashamed of. In my opinion conflicts should never start from this point, of having different interests, because in this case we will never be able to make friends. There is another true cause of any conflict, and that is: not listening to each other. As much as people need communication in their life, they also need someone to hear what they have to say and to understand them. At this point a true friend is needed. As long as we have someone ready to listen to us we shall be happy.
On the other hand, if we consider having a good friend a person who doesn't ever listen to us then we have a problem. Of course between two such people, that only care about their own life, being unwilling to invovle in someone else's, there cannot be any friendship. They will always argue namely because of this issue. Of course they might be similar in behaviour, interests and values, but as long as they cannot learn to listen to each other they cannot consider being freinds.
In a nutshell, conflicts are a wide topic to speak about. They have multiple origins and different endings. The important thing to understand here is that we will only find a common language with a persons that can hear what we say, can understand and help us. And it doesn't matter how different this person might be. As long as he knows how to be a good friend, his race, gender or age should mean nothing to you.
Literary property: hellenetk