15 November 2001

Bush, Putin Conclude Three Days of Talks on Arms Issues, Afghanistan

Washington -- Concluding three days of talks at the White House and at the Bush ranch in rural Texas, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated November 15 that they had solidified their already good relations, and Bush said he planned to visit Russia soon, although the date has not been set.

The two leaders wrapped up their visit together by talking with students, including Russian exchange students, at the Crawford, Texas, High School, not far from the Bush ranch.

The November 13-15 talks, the fourth meeting between the two leaders, enabled them "to continue a very personal dialogue," Bush said, noting that it resulted in "great progress" on a number of issues.

"We're both pledging to reduce the amount of nuclear weapons, offensive weapons, we have in order to make the world more secure. We're talking about ways to cooperate in anti-terrorism and anti-proliferation. We're talking about ways to make sure our economies can grow together. What we're talking about is a new relationship," said Bush.

He added that he looked forward to future meetings with Putin. The key, he said, "is that we establish a relationship between our countries strong enough that will endure beyond our presidencies."

Putin told the students it gives him "great pleasure to deal and to work with President Bush, who is a person, a man, who does what he says."

"Yesterday, we tasted steak and listened to music, and all of this with a single purpose and objective, to increase the level of confidence between the leaders and the people," said the Russian president.

Both leaders, however, said they still have different views on the Anti- Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty that forbids deployment of missile defense systems. The Soviet Union and the United States signed the treaty in 1972.

Bush says he believes the Treaty should be scrapped because it is no longer relevant to the changed relationship between the United States and Russia. "We have a difference of opinion. But the great thing about our relationship is our relationship is strong enough to endure this," Bush said.

Putin said there is "common ground" for further discussions. The objective of both the United States and Russia, he said, "is to achieve security for our states, for our nations, and for the entire world."

"We differ in the ways and means we perceive that are suitable for reaching the same objective," the Russian President said. "And given the nature of the relationship between the United States and Russia, one can rest assured that whatever final solution is found, it will not threaten or put to threat the interests of both our countries and of the world. And we shall continue our discussions."

Later in the day, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice told reporters that the United States and Russia are continuing at both the presidential level and at the expert level to share more and more information about how U.S. missile defense plans are developing.

Whatever may happen, she said, "whatever we do to address our concerns about missile defense, this is in the context now of a substantially changed relationship from where we were several months ago. And that's just an extremely important point to keep in mind. This is a smaller element of the U.S.-Russia relationship than it was several months ago, and certainly than it was before September 11th."

Rice said that Afghanistan and the war on terrorism actually were the main topics of conversation between Bush and Putin.

That turned out to be the dominant issue at the November 14-15 talks at the ranch, she said, "just as it was really the dominant issue in the more formal part of the trip," the talks at the White House November 13 between the two leaders.

"They talked about the importance of getting the political arrangements accelerated now, given the accelerating situation on the ground." They also discussed the problems of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their joint concerns about Osama bin Laden's desire to acquire such weapons.

"And they pledged again very close cooperation in intelligence gathering, in information sharing to try and thwart" terrorist plans, she said.

The overnight visit at the ranch between the two leaders, Rice said, "was really a wonderful meeting, quite remarkable meeting, very relaxed. The two men spent a lot of time together. Their wives spent a lot of time together. Despite the rain, the President did take President Putin, yesterday afternoon, on a tour of the ranch. But they had a lot of time to talk together about a number of substantive issues," she said.

"What we're seeing, Rice said, "is that Russia and the United States have a lot of interests in common. Quite apart from the fact that these two men do like each other -- they have a similar sense of humor, they get along extremely well -- the interests of Russia and the United States are moving in a common direction. And that's really the very most important thing about this."