[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: GEORGE W. BUSH (2001, Book I)]
[June 16, 2001]
[Pages 685-693]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
[[Page 685]]
The President's News Conference With President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Kranj
June 16, 2001
President Bush. Good afternoon. President Putin and I have just
concluded 2 hours of straightforward and productive meetings. We had a
good discussion of our views of Russian-American relations and of the
changing world at the beginnings of this new century. Our countries have
common interests, and we share great responsibilities.
My meeting with President Putin today is an important step in
building a constructive, respectful relationship with Russia, a
relationship that has the potential to benefit not only our two
countries but also the world. Russia is an important country with vast
potential. When Russia and the United States work together in a
constructive way, we can make the world a safer and more prosperous
place.
I enjoyed the opportunity to meet President Putin in person for the
first time. I am convinced that he and I can build a relationship of
mutual respect and candor. And I'm convinced that it's important for the
world that we do so.
More than a decade after the cold war ended, it is time to move
beyond suspicion and toward 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.
We have great opportunities to cooperate on economic, commercial,
regional, and security issues. President Putin and I have agreed to
launch an extensive dialog about a wide range of issues that we can
constructively address together.
We also discussed the importance of sound investment climate to
improve Russia's future economic prosperity. I was so impressed that he
was able to simplify his tax code in Russia with a flat tax. I'm not so
sure I'll have the same success with our Congress.
We must continue a dialog, so I'm prepared to send both Secretary
O'Neill and Secretary Evans to Moscow soon to further our discussions. I want to
encourage Russian and American businesses to become more involved in our
discussions, so that together, we can foster meaningful investments.
President Putin agrees with this approach.
And we've agreed to launch regular detailed and serious
consultations on the nature of our security relationship. I said to
President Putin that we need a new approach for a new era, an approach
that protects both our peoples and strengthens deterrence by exploring
and developing our new attitudes toward defenses and missile defenses.
I've directed Secretary of State Powell and
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to work
with their Russian counterparts to begin discussing a new security
framework. I have invited President Putin to Washington this fall; he
accepted. He invited me to Russia, and I accepted, and I look forward to
the visit.
We also agreed to continue our cooperation and work toward common
solutions on important regional issues, from the Balkans to Nagorno-
Karabakh to Afghanistan. And we discussed our common interest in
developing the energy resources of the Caspian Basin in a way that
benefits all the countries of the region.
Respectful relations require honesty. And we did discuss areas where
my country has differences with Russia, over Chechnya and over media
relations. I also expressed my hope that Russia will develop
constructive relations with its neighbors, like Georgia, that are trying
to find their own way in a challenging but hopeful world.
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This was a very good meeting. And I look forward to my next meeting
with President Putin in July. I very much enjoyed our time together.
He's an honest, straightforward man who loves his country. He loves his
family. We share a lot of values. I view him as a remarkable leader. I
believe his leadership will serve Russia well. Russia and America have
the opportunity to accomplish much together; we should seize it. And
today we have begun.
And finally, I'm especially pleased we're able to have this meeting
in Slovenia, one of the success stories of Southeast Europe. In my
meetings today with the President and the Prime
Minister, I reaffirmed America's support for
Slovenia's integration with Europe and the Euro-Atlantic community. I
especially thank the people of Slovenia, and I want to thank the
leadership for such warm hospitality and congratulate the people on the
10th anniversary of its independence on June the 25th.
I only regret not staying long enough to see Lake Bled or to climb
Mount Triglav. Who knows, maybe I'll have the opportunity down the road.
Mr. President.
President Putin. First of all, I wanted to confirm everything that's
been said by President Bush when he characterized our meeting. I could
even add that I was counting on an open, frank dialog, confidential
dialog. But in this regard, as they say in cases like this, reality was
a lot bigger than expectations, because this was not only a confidential
discussion but extremely and all the way to more than what you could
expect from frankness, because President Bush, as a person who has
studied history, proposed a very global, wide-scale approach and view to
history. And it was very interesting and positive.
We sat, talked about the past, about the present, about the future
of our countries and about the development of the situation in the world
for many years into the future. This was really a very interesting
discussion. I think that we found a good basis to start building on our
cooperation. We're counting on a pragmatic relationship between Russia
and the United States. We compared our approaches in key areas, and once
again, we established our common ground.
I want to return now to what the President said very recently, that
Russia and the United States are not enemies, they do not threaten each
other, and they could be fully good allies. And taking into account the
fact that the United States and the Russian Federation--as no one else,
as no other country of the world--have accumulated huge amounts of
nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction, we bear a special
responsibility for maintaining the common peace and security in the
world, for building a new architecture of security in the world.
All of this presupposes a very close cooperation for strengthening
security in the 21st century. And saying this, any unilateral actions
can only make more complicated various problems and issues.
One of the central topics of our discussion was the strengthening of
strategic stability. We exchanged our views on our approaches. It was
very important for me to hear how and what the President of the United
States thinks and to hear directly from him.
In turn, naturally, I expressed the approaches of Russia in this
sphere. The differences in approaches do exist, and naturally, in one
short moment, it's impossible to overcome all of them. But I am
convinced that ahead of us we have a constructive dialog and the will to
talk about these topics, to discuss, to hear, to listen--to listen and
to hear each other. And to my mind, this is very important.
The President and I have agreed that we're going to tell our
Ministers of Defense, Secretaries of Defense, Foreign Ministers, to
continue in this vein, to continue this discussion without any pauses.
Of course, we discussed some very difficult regional issues, the
Near East and
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Afghanistan and the Balkans. I have to say that this discussion showed
that the differences in our approaches in the very fundamental areas are
much less than that which unites us. The differences in our positions,
positions of the two countries, really are not of a fundamental nature,
a global nature, something which cannot be solved--not at all. I think
that it would be very incorrect for us to start forcing out issues and
arguments and not take into account the very fundamental, main concepts
and issues in our relationships, which are the basis and the whole
foundation of the relationship between the Russian Federation and the
United States of America.
The President and I are united in saying that the economic ties
between our two countries do not correspond to the potential of our two
countries. The Government of the Russian Federation, businessmen of both
countries, and the U.S. administration, of course, can do a lot more to
support the effectiveness of our economic ties. And the President
expressed that we need an additional impulse from our businessmen, that
we will do everything possible to receive a very high-level business
delegation of the United States to Russia, moreover, especially if it is
headed by one of the senior officials of the U.S. administration.
Here there are a lot of very specific issues. We talked about energy
resources; we talked about using the Caspian Basin. You know, very soon
the new pipeline system is going to go into effect, which is going to be
transporting energy resources from the Caspian region through novie
russkies. And this is a joint project of two companies, Russian and
American companies. I'm sure that this will not be the last such
project.
I want to stress here that the issues that were discussed at
Ljubljana are going to be the subject of our continuing dialog. And we
really, in fact, did agree that we're going to talk in Genoa; we're
going to talk in Shanghai at the APEC Conference. And I'm very grateful
to the President of the United States for inviting me to the United
States. I would do it with great pleasure, especially because he invited
to have me over at his ranch. And I'm going to receive him in my own
home, not just in Russia but in my own home.
And the last, in the last few months, and at the very threshold of
our meeting, there was a lot of discussion about the fact that U.S.-
Russian relations are overburdened by problems and issues that are
somehow reaching a critical stage. I think the very nature and the
result of our discussion today between myself and the President of the
United States will put an end to all of these rumors. We see very
clearly a very positive prospect of our relationship in the future. And
we are all geared up to work in the future constructively,
pragmatically, and to establish very good, predictable relationship.
And of course, I cannot but say the very highest about the
hospitality of our hosts, who provided us with all the conditions
necessary for holding this very good meeting--good, moral atmosphere.
Thank you. Thank you ever so much.
Moderator. Dear colleagues, we have said that we're going to give
the first opportunity to ask a question to journalists from Slovenia,
please.
[At this point, a question was asked, and an English translation was not
provided.]
President Bush. I don't think the interpreter could have done it in
English, but anyway, go ahead.
NATO Enlargement
Q. On the next summit in Prague, where, according to Lord Robertson,
enlargement will happen, and what is the Russian position on
enlargement?
President Bush. I went to my first NATO summit, and there appears to
be a uniform desire to expand NATO. This is certainly the position of my
country. But as I reminded the leaders today, that there is a
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process, and the countries must work toward that process. I am impressed
by the progress being made in this country, and we will take that under
consideration when we meet in Prague a year from this fall.
The Balkans
Q. A question for you, Mr. Putin. You're leaving from Slovenia,
straight to Belgrade. Do you have any concrete solutions for the Balkan
crisis?
President Putin. As I understand you, what you have in mind is the
situation in the region.
Yes, it's working. It's working. It's good to have dealings with
effective people that make things work.
As I understand it, what you have in mind is the overall situation
in the Balkans, right? Macedonia, Kosovo, et cetera, right? Well, we do
have our own idea, vision of what's happening here and how we should
act.
Today we did discuss with the President of the United States, Mr.
Bush. The most important things that we have to really pay attention to
is to put an effective block, an end to any kind of extremism and
feelings of intolerance--religious intolerance. People who are trying to
solve, no matter how complex an issue of national or ethnic or religious
conflict--weapons simply are not those kinds of things which can solve
these problems.
In some of the countries of the former Soviet Union, for instance--
you probably know, we talk about this very often--in the Baltic States,
for instance, we feel that human rights are damaged, especially of the
ethnic Russian populations. In Latvia, for instance, 40 percent of the
population is Russian-speaking, a huge number of non-citizens--in other
words, people who can't even get citizenship. We don't send weapons
there. We don't support those people. We don't call it terrorism. We
don't try to get people to rise up on the basis of national or ethnic
origin or religious feelings. We don't encourage people to take up arms
to fight against that.
I stress against, and I insist that people who try to do this do not
deserve the support of the international community. But on the contrary,
the international community must say once and for all, everybody who
does this will receive due answer. These things can only be solved
through negotiations. This is a very difficult process. It requires
patience, but there is no other way.
National Missile Defense/Nuclear Proliferation
Q. A question to both of you, if I may. President Putin, President
Bush has said that he's going to go forward with his missile defense
plans basically with or without your blessing. Are you unyielding in
your opposition to his missile defense plan? Is there anything you can
do to stop it?
And to President Bush, did President Putin ease your concern at all
about the spread of nuclear technologies by Russia, and is this a man
that Americans can trust?
President Bush. Yes. Do you want to go first?
President Putin. Now, as far as the issue of antimissile defense,
the official position of the Russian Government is known. I don't think
we need to spend time to, yet again, declare it. We proceed from the
idea that the 1972 ABM Treaty is the cornerstone of the modern
architecture of international security. We proceed from the premise that
there are elements which unite us with our partners in the United
States.
When we hear about things like concerns of the future and about
threats from the future, we do agree that together, we have to sit down
and have a good think about this. But we proceed from the idea that
these concerns and threats are different kinds of things. Threats have
to be defined. We have to look at where they come from and then make
some decisions as to how we have to counter them.
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We feel that we can do it best together. Based upon today's dialog,
I've come to the conclusion, and the impression, that we might have a
very constructive development here in this arena; at least the President
of the United States listened carefully. He listens to our arguments
very carefully. But I think the specialists, as I have said before, have
to sit down, have contact to identify the overall platform that we're
going to work from, and try to find a way together to solve these
problems.
Now, as far as the issues of proliferation and nonproliferation, I
have to say that in our opinion, this is a topic that's very, very
closely tied to the ABM Treaty because many other things are hooked onto
this same string. And many threshold states, when it comes to the
destruction of a previous accord, can only be happy and say, ``Look,
fantastic. Yesterday, we were threshold. Nobody agreed--nobody took any
account of us--now, today, recognize us.'' This is a problem we're going
to have to really think very hard about.
Can we trust Russia? I'm not going to answer to that. I could ask
the very same question.
President Bush. I found him to be very straightforward and
trustworthy. We had a very good dialog. I was able to get a sense of his
soul, a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of
his country. And I appreciated so very much the frank dialog. There was
no kind of diplomatic chitchat, trying to throw each other off balance.
There was a straightforward dialog. And that's the beginning of a very
constructive relationship. I wouldn't have invited him to my ranch if I
didn't trust him. [Laughter]
Secondly, I appreciate the opportunity to be able to talk about a
new relationship, and we will continue these dialogs. The basis for my
discussion began with this simple premise, that Russia and the United
States must establish a new relationship beyond that of the old cold war
mentality. The cold war said loud and clear that we're opponents and
that we bring the peace through the ability for each of us to destroy
each other. Friends don't destroy each other. People who cooperate do
not have a basis of peace on destruction.
Our nations are confronted with new threats in the 21st century.
Terror in the hands of what we call rogue nations is a threat. I
expressed my concern--and so did the President--very openly, about
nations on his border and nations that can't stand America's freedoms
developing the capacity to hold each of us hostage; and he agreed. I
brought up concerns about Iran. And I'm hesitant to put words in the
President's mouth, but he said he's concerned, as well--I think that
accurately categorizes your position--and we'll work together to stop
the spread of weapons of mass destruction. And I believe as we go down
the road that we'll be able to develop a constructive relationship as to
how to use our technologies and research and willingness to keep the
peace, in a way that makes the world more peaceful.
I was so pleased that we were able to begin constructive, real
dialog between our Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and Mr. Andrei Ivanov. These will
be fruitful discussions, and I believe what people will see is a
strategy, a joint strategy. The President's a history major, and so am
I. And we remember the old history. It's time to write new history, in a
positive and constructive way.
NATO Expansion
Q. This is a question to both Presidents, if you allow. Mr. Bush,
you partially answered--you talked about issues of strategic security;
you talked about the future. In this connection, could you tell us
anything about what you talked about the expansion of NATO? Thank you.
President Bush. [Inaudible]--to expand, so long as nations met their
obligations and fulfilled their--met what's called the MAP process. I
said yesterday in Poland, I felt like a secure border for Russia, a
border
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with safe and friendly nations, is positive. And I expressed my
Government's position very plainly. And the President, of course, had a
reaction, which I'm sure he'll give you right now.
I thought he was going to give it to you right now. [Laughter]
President Putin. Yes, I'm going to lay it out for you. I'm going to
lay it out for you. Look, I'm going to read to you something which was
recently declassified. Speaking for myself--look, this was printed a
while back, but there's a document--attached addendum documents which
were secret. ``Copy declassified''--it was top secret. Look, here it is.
This is a note of the Soviet Government from 1954, sent to the countries
of NATO. Here's what it says: ``The leadership, holding to its
inalienable policy and taking into account all the tensions, the Soviet
Government announces its intention to enter into discussions with NATO
countries about its participation in NATO, with the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization.''
And this was the answer--look, here's the answer: The Soviet
Government proposed--they were talking about the widening of the NATO
pact and what they're going to do about bringing the Soviet Union in.
``There is no need to stress the completely unrealistic nature of such a
proposal from the Soviet Union.'' That's the answer that NATO gave.
So what we're talking about here, you remember about a year ago, I
think, somebody asked a question about, ``What's your attitude? Is it
possible that Russia is going to join in NATO or not?'' I said, ``Why
not?'' And right away, Mrs. Albright, former Secretary of State--she was
someplace on a trip to Europe--she said, ``Look, we're not talking about
this right now.''
Look, you understand that our attitude toward NATO is not was one
toward an enemy organization; of course not. And I'm very grateful to
the President of the United States that finally, from the territory of
the United States, these words were heard. This is very important for
us; we value this. When a President of a great power says that he wants
to see Russia as a partner and maybe even as an ally, this is worth so
much to us.
But if that's the case, then, look, we ask ourselves a question:
Look, this is a military organization? Yes, it's military. They don't
want us there? They don't want us there. It's moving towards our border?
Yes, it's moving towards our border. Why?
So this is the foundation of all our concerns, not just to bring it
in or not bring it in, or accept NATO or not accept NATO. Look, the
positive feeling that we now have developed today with President Bush--
this could be a separate subject of discussion because, you know, Russia
is cooperating with NATO. We have an agreement; we have association; we
have various accords and treaties; there's the JPC. And there's no need
to fire up this whole situation.
National Missile Defense/Russia-U.S. Relations
Q. Mr. President, did you offer President Putin any inducements in
this conversation to ease his opposition to a U.S. missile defense plan?
And President Putin, to follow up on your comments just now, does
the simple fact of President Bush saying that Russia is not an enemy
actually change your strategic or military planning?
President Bush. I offered something: logic and a hopeful tomorrow. I
offered the opportunity, which the President is going to seize, for us,
as leaders of great powers, to work together.
We have a unique opportunity to address the true threats of the 21st
century together. We have a great moment during our tenures to cast
aside the suspicions and doubts that used to plague our nations. And I'm
committed to do so.
I said in Poland, and I'll say it again: Russia is not the enemy of
the United States. As a matter of fact, after our meeting today, I'm
convinced it can be a strong
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partner and friend, more so than people could imagine.
The leader of Russia is working hard on behalf of his people to
promote prosperity and peace. And I believe our nations can work
together to achieve prosperity and peace, not only within our respective
countries but around the world. I believe that.
And so we didn't have a bargaining session. We had a session of two
men who have come to office for the right purpose, not only to represent
our countries but given our standing, our respective standings, to work
together to deal with the threats of the 21st century. A threat of the
21st century is energy; a threat of the 21st century is poverty; a
threat of the 21st century is the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
And as the President said to me clearly, he said that ``You're not the
only nation that cares about weapons of mass destruction; we care.'' And
we have an opportunity to do that. We have an opportunity to reject
extremists that could threaten our respective nations and respect our--
and threaten our alliances. And we will do so--we will do so.
And today has been a very constructive day. Everybody is trying to
read body language. Mark me down as very pleased with the progress and
the frank discussion. We will meet again in July, then later in the
fall. Then we'll have the great Crawford, Texas, summit. And I believe
that people who watch carefully our relationship will see that it grows
and emerges. It starts with trust. Ron [Ron Fournier, Associated Press]
asked a great question: Can I trust him? And I can. And from that basis
we can begin a very fruitful relationship.
Q. So there were no specific--that you offered in this meeting, just
logic?
President Bush. We did not--well, first of all, our relationship is
larger than just security relationships. It's bigger than figuring out
how to deal with the ABM Treaty; it's much bigger than that. It deals
with two leaders who share values.
The President told me something very interesting. He said, ``I read
where you named your daughters after your mother and your mother-in-
law.'' And I said, ``Yes, I'm a great diplomat, aren't I?'' [Laughter]
And he said, ``I did the same thing.'' [Laughter] I said, ``Mr.
President, you're a fine diplomat, as well.'' We share our love for our
families. We've got common interests. And from that basis we will seize
the moment to make a difference in the world. That's why he ran for the
Presidency, and it's why I ran for the Presidency.
This is not a bargaining session. The President didn't say, ``You
know, if you do this, I'll do that.'' It's bigger than that. It's a
bigger relationship than that, and it's important to understand that.
Q. Question on whether the simple fact of President Bush saying that
you are no longer--the United States is not your enemy actually changes
your military thinking or your strategic thinking and planning?
President Putin. This is not a question; I think this has become an
interview. [Laughter] But look, nonetheless, I'll respond. It's not by
accident that I said that's it's important for us. And it seems to me
that if you start with a mutual understanding that we are partners,
that's the way we're going to move to try to solve this very important
issue.
Look, we didn't just sit down and say that our specialists are going
to meet and they're going to have an exchange of views. But we agreed
that they're going to discuss very specific questions which cause
concern to both sides, very specific items. I'm not prepared right now
to get into this publicly, but we're talking about specifics.
Moreover, I have to say that between Russia and the United States,
we have two protocols that we've signed on nonstrategic ABM systems, in
New York and I think it was in Helsinki. And this, too, is a subject of
very special review. I think the specialists should define all these
things. Again, I define--I repeat--define the threats and
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those things which just stand in the way; to look at the power that both
countries have to neutralize these threats. I think we can work out a
common approach.
Russia-U.S. Economic Ties
Q. To both Presidents, if you allow: Getting back to trade and
economic issues, ties between our two countries, how soon do you think
we can expect a delegation of American businessmen to Moscow? And do you
have any plans on creating an intergovernmental commission of various
agencies, which could stimulate economic ties between the United States
and Russia? Thank you.
President Bush. I'll talk to the Secretary of Commerce as soon as I get back and tell him of our agreement and
get him moving. Sometimes I worry a little bit about commissions. If
commissions exist just to exist, then I don't think it's fruitful. If
commissions exist in order to stimulate action, then perhaps.
Let me say one other area where the United States is in agreement
with Russia. We think Russia ought to be admitted into the World Trade
Organization. And we'll work toward that end. The Russian President has
expressed a desire to join the WTO, and I think it makes sense. I think
that will help a lot.
And there's a lot of areas in our business relationships. I reminded
the President that oftentimes people speak in terms of--they say Russia
is a country of great resources, only referring to the energy resources,
the mining resources, the timber resources. That's true. But Russia has
got a resource that's invaluable in this new era, and that's brainpower.
Russia's got great mathematicians and engineers who can just as easily
participate in the high-tech world as American engineers and American
mathematicians. And that's an area of great interest to me, and it's an
area of great interest to the President. It's an area where we can begin
a fruitful dialog.
The deployment of capital is something that's very important to
Russia; it's important to our businessmen. The President understands
it's important to have rule of law, a reasonable tax system,
transparency in the economy. And he's working toward that, and I am
grateful. Our businessmen and our Secretary of Commerce will hear that
when they travel to Russia.
President Putin. You know, I agree with the President in that to
overload our relationship by a variety of bureaucratic structures and
organizations, that's not always justified. The most important thing is
to create favorable conditions for effective work by the business
community. We know the plans of President Bush with respect to his
taxation policy and with respect to other measures which he is planning,
with respect to the economy of the United States.
From our part, we still have to do so much that would make Russia
attractive for foreign investors--although among international
investors, the Americans are in first place. Naturally, first and
foremost, we have to take care of the issues of the energy problem in
the world at large. American business is showing a great interest in
this sphere.
But we also know that President Bush has plans in the atomic energy
field. Here, too, we think we've got a couple of things we could talk
about. We have a very fruitful area of cooperation we could work in. We
have a number of various structures that are working very appropriately
now in reprocessing uranium.
We've got pretty good cooperation in space now. It seems to me that
to a significant extent, that which exists now, it is functioning very
successfully now, the space station, the International Space Station and
the participation of the United States and Russia.
We have so many other areas we'd like to work in. But when the
businessmen come--that depends, of course, on the U.S.
[[Page 693]]
side--but we'll receive them at any time that's appropriate to them.
Note: The President's news conference began at 5:30 p.m. at Brdo Castle.
President Putin spoke in Russian, and his remarks were translated by an
interpreter. In his remarks, President Bush referred to his mother,
Barbara Bush, his mother-in-law, Jenna Welch, and his daughters, Jenna
and Barbara P.; Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov; and
President Milan Kucan and Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek of Slovenia. He
also referred to MAP, NATO's Membership Action Plan process. President
Putin referred to former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline K. Albright;
and to JPC, the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council. A reporter referred
to NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson.