Joint Press Conference with US President George W.Bush Part 4
May 24, 2002
The Kremlin, Moscow
Совместная пресс-конференция с Президентом США Джорджем Бушем
24 мая 2002 года
Москва, Кремль
PRESIDENT PUTIN: I concur with the assessment given by my colleague, Mr Bush. And naturally, our position is well-known, we are guided by the facts that it's more worthwhile perhaps to eliminate a certain part of nuclear potentials. At the same time, I'd like to point out another thing here. Any man who has at least once in his career dealt with arms, had arms in his hands, at least to hunt or a rifle or whatever, he knows that it's much better, much safer to have it in storage disarmed, disassembled perhaps, rather than to have it in your arms and charged with bullets in it and with your finger on the trigger at the same time. This is a different state of affairs, as it were.
And the fact that we agreed with President Bush regarding such detente, in such manner, this is a serious move ahead to ensure international security, which is a very good sign as regards the relationship between our two countries.
Now, as to why Russia should continue to produce nuclear arms, I'd like to say that this is not our priority. But in addition to Russia and U.S. out there, there are other states who possess nuclear arms. What is more concerning, there are countries who want to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Experts in the area of international security are aware of the fact, and they have been talking a lot about nuclear arms as deterrent.
Moreover, many of them assert and it is difficult to dispute this fact they say the existence of the nuclear arms was an impediment, an obstacle which contained the world from large-scale wars over the past decades, let's say. And I think we should take that into consideration while building a new quality of relationship within the two main nuclear states of the world.
We also should pay attention to the whole set of relations currently in the world out there and we should take into account the prospects of development of the world in the realm of security, bearing in mind those potential threats I've mentioned here.
QUESTION: Mr. Bush, when we can hope that Jackson-Vanik will be rescinded, which currently is very out of place? That's, you know, a remnant of the Cold War here. And does it mean that the USA will use it as a leverage of applying pressure on Russia? And when Russia will finally be recognized as a marketplace country? And what's the prospect of Russia's accession to WTO?
And now to Mr Putin, Russian President. What's your idea of how U.S. Boeings can help Russian civil aviation?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I couldn't make myself clearer during my opening statement about how I feel about Jackson-Vanik not much action by the Congress of the United States and I hope they act. The market-based economy is an issue that the President and I talked about. It is a regulatory matter, the responsibility of which resides at the Commerce Department. Secretary Evans and I have to talk about this subject, and we'll have an answer to the President soon.
And in terms of success of Russia ascending into the WTO, it's something that we want. It's in our nation's interest that Russia be a part of the WTO. And we look forward to working with the President and respective ministers, to see that that happens. It's in our interest that that happen. So it's hard for me to predict the timetables on all the issues you mentioned. Those over which I have got direct control will happen relatively quickly.
PRESIDENT PUTIN: Well, you know, while talking about the whole set of commercial and trade ties between our two countries, today we've mentioned more than once that we are facing somewhat an unusual situation in this area today, which has to do with the fact that while improving relations in disarmament matters, building confidence and so on and so forth, at the same time, we're expanding the whole set of relations in economic area. And, naturally, we'll face new problems we never had to deal with before.
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В.Путин.Совместная пресс-конференция.24.05.02.Part 3by niknikolay274 views
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