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Bush, Putin end debut summit
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US President George W Bush and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Saturday concluded their debut summit in Ljubljana, Slovenia agreeing to seek further dialogues on a wide range of issues of mutual concern.
Addressing a joint press conference shortly after the summit, Bush described his talks with Putin as “straight forward and productive”.
“My meeting with President Putin today is an important step in building a constructive, respectful relationship with Russia,” Bush said. “I am convinced that he and I can build a relationship of mutual respect and candor,” he added.
“We found a good basis to start building on co-operation, counting on a pragmatic relationship between Russia and the United States,” said Putin, who described the summit meeting as an “honest, frank dialogue”.
The two leaders met for two hours in Brdo Castle, 25 kilometres north of the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, and discussed a wide range of issues concerning bilateral relations, global strategic stability, Nato enlargement, nuclear nonproliferation and some regional conflicts.
Talking about security relations with Russia, Bush said that “more than a decade after the Cold War ended it is time to move beyond suspicion and towards straight talk, beyond mutually assured destruction and toward mutually earned respect”.
“As we work together to address the world as it is, not as it used to be, it is important that we not only talk differently, we also must act differently,” he said, indicating that Washington is prepared to forge ahead with its missile defence programme in spite of strong Russian opposition.
While acknowledging that it was important for the two sides to exchange views on strategic stability, Putin noted that “the differences in approaches do exist”.
“In one short moment, it's impossible to overcome all of them,” he said. “Any unilateral actions can openly make more complicated various problems and issues.”
(SD-Agencies)
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