Joint Press-Conference with the President of the United States, George W.Bush.Part 2
September 16,2005
Washington
Совместная пресс-конференция с Президентом США Джорджем Бушем
16 сентября 2005 года
Вашингтон
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: Dear ladies and gentlemen, first and foremost, I would like to thank the President for the invitation to the White House. At the outset, allow me to express my sincerest compassion and support to the American people for the loss of many human lives, and serious destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. Please believe that we sincerely and genuinely empathize with you. Already in the very first hours after the tragedy, Russia offered its assistance. Of course, this help cannot compare with the scale of aid the President of the United States outlined yesterday to restore the affected regions. However, the support was sincere as was the desire to be close to you, to help, and to offer both moral support and those items that people need most, such as medication and basic supplies.
I must say that these events were a serious lesson for the whole world, not only for the U.S.. It is not accidental that both in New York and today in Washington, we paid a lot of attention to this theme. It is a global catastrophe, and one that must make us think. Today I told George that also in Russia, we will draw conclusions on how to efficiently respond to and how to avert such catastrophes which, without a doubt, are global in nature.
Precisely for this reason we talked about these tragic events and our cooperation in averting manmade catastrophes, infectious diseases and so forth. I am sure that if we pool our efforts, then our actions will be much more effective. In general, the new, and even closer Russian-American relations, will enable both countries to effectively solve break-through strategic issues in many fields in which we cooperate. Today's meeting is a confirmation of this.
The traditional, high-priority subject of our discussions is anti-terrorist cooperation between the U.S. and Russia. We have agreed to enhance bilateral coordination, including within the working group to combat terrorism. Here, we believe that constant attention should be given to joint efforts to prevent terrorist activities, and of course, to the possibility that terrorists obtain weapons of mass destruction. You know that a decision on this subject was adopted in the UN, in New York.
Significant attention was paid to the question of nonproliferation, and we discussed the North Korean problem and the Iranian nuclear dossier. I must say that our positions are very close to those of our American partners. We will continue to coordinate our efforts in this field. I would like to point out that our side feels that the political and diplomatic means to resolve these problems are far from being exhausted, and that we will take all the necessary steps to resolve these issues without exacerbating them or pushing them to extremes.
We briefly discussed other crisis situations in the world, but I must say, that our ministries of foreign affairs are in constant contact on all of these issues. We also discussed the upcoming G8 meeting. I am thankful to George for some of his recommendations. We will continue to be in close contact with our partners in preparing this event and its agenda, so that the G8 meeting in the Russian Federation will not only be an organisational success, but will carry on from previous such meetings and introduce a new spirit into examining the problems that are relevant both for our countries and the whole world.
Today we also discussed the situation in post-Soviet space. Our countries have a shared interest in maintaining stability and economic prosperity in this vast territory. Russia's position on this issue is widely known. We favour the consistent advancement of integration within the framework of the CIS, while rigorously respecting the sovereign rights of all our neighbours, and their right to choose their method of national development without outside pressure. Here, we hope to coordinate our activities with those of all our partners.
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В.Путин.Совместная пресс-конференция.16.09.05.Part 3by niknikolay198 views
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