    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
    [November 22, 2002]
    [Pages 2110-2112]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Following Discussions With President Vladimir Putin of Russia and an Exchange With Reporters in St.
    Petersburg, Russia
    November 22, 2002

        President Putin. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. In your
    presence may I once again cordially welcome the President of the United
    States and his team to Russia.
        We are very pleased that Mr. President accepted our invitation. And
    let me say that our conversations--and this is exactly the way I'd like
    to quote this meeting--our conversation on the whole range of our
    bilateral issues and our cooperation in the international arena have
    been very productive and very, very frank.
        And we discussed practically everything between the sky and the
    Earth. We discussed our cooperation in the energy sector, our energy
    dialog. We discussed our cooperation in the high technology sector. We
    also--[inaudible]--the problem of NATO expansion and the development of
    relations between Russia and NATO. And of course, we also addressed the
    problem of terrorism. And of course, we also discussed the prospects for
    our cooperation on the matters of strategic stability.
        I think that Mr. President will agree with me--and he'll have an
    opportunity to say what he thinks on this--but I think he'll agree with
    me that our meeting, in this point a very frank meeting, without
    prepared statements, has been very productive and has been very
    fruitful.
        President Bush. Yes, it has. I consider Vladimir Putin one of my
    good friends.
        Are you going to translate?
        Like other good friends I've had throughout my life, we don't agree
    100 percent of the time. But we always agree to discuss things in a
    frank and--in a frank way.
        Every time I come to St. Petersburg, he keeps showing me more and
    more beautiful rooms. So I'm coming back next May. I always enjoy our
    conversations.
        I have just come from NATO. My visit with Vladimir was my first stop
    after Prague. The mood of the NATO countries is this: Russia is our
    friend; we've got a

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    lot of interests together; we must continue our cooperation in the war
    on terror; and the expansion of NATO should be welcomed by the Russian
    people. After all, there are new nations on our border that are members
    of--nations that are new members of NATO but nations pledged to peace
    and pledged to freedom.
        But the President was right, we had a--we discussed a lot of issues.
    And I would define our bilateral relations as very good.
        We might answer a couple of questions.
        Q. This is a question to both Presidents.
        President Bush. Okay, fine. Fire away.

    Russia-U.S. Relations/NATO

    [At this point, a question was asked in Russian, and no translation was
    provided.]

        President Putin. As regards partnership, it is on a very high level.
    And it is very pleasant for me to note that we not only have lost
    nothing of what has been generated, has been produced by the previous
    generations of politicians, but we keep going on further. We keep
    achieving new results, and we are moving ahead very expeditiously and
    very productively.
        And I'd like to stress--and this is a very important point--that the
    interests of Russia and the United States coincide not only in many
    economic fields but they are also identical in many strategic areas.
        As regards our relations with NATO, let me say the following: As
    regards the expansion, you know our position well. We do not believe
    that this has been necessitated by the existing pact, but we take note
    of the position taken by the President of the United States, and we hope
    to have positive development of our relations with all NATO countries.
        As regards our relationship with the Alliance as a whole, as the
    Alliance keeps transforming--and this is something that Mr. President
    talked about recently--we do not rule out the possibility of deepening
    our relations with the Alliance. Of course, in the case if the
    activities of the Alliance are in accord with Russia's national security
    interests. At least within the Group of 20, we are interacting, are
    cooperating in a very well way, in a very good way.
        President Bush. Yes, the Russian-NATO Council is very important. But
    the strategy of NATO is going to be based upon the fact that the cold
    war is over; Russia is a friend; Russia is not an enemy. And I told the
    President, as I was leaving the NATO summit, a lot of leaders came up
    and asked me to send their personal regards to him.
        And in terms of our bilateral relations, we'll continue to work to
    make them as strong as they can possibly be, and there's a lot of
    areas--in trade, in commerce, in energy--that we're working together to
    make progress.
        I think it's only fair we ask one American. Jim [Jim Angle, FOX
    News]. Jim's his name.

    Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri/Iraq

        Q. Thank you, Mr. President. The public now knows that the U.S. has
    in its custody a terrorist who has the blood of many Americans on his
    hands, Mr. al-Nashiri. How significant is his arrest?
        And since we see President Putin so rarely, Mr. President, I hope
    you won't object if I ask President Putin a question as well. And that
    is, sir, has the U.S. asked you to participate or contribute to any
    military action in Iraq if it becomes necessary, and what is your view
    on that?
        President Bush. A couple of points. First, I want to thank Vladimir
    and his foreign policy team for working together to pass a strong
    resolution out of the United Nations on Iraq.
        Secondly, we did bring to justice a killer. And the message is,
    we're making war on the--we're making progress on the war against
    terrorists, that we're going to hunt them down one at a time, that it
    doesn't matter where they hide. As we work with our friends, we will
    find them and bring them to justice. And America and Russia

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    and people who love freedom are one person safer as a result of us
    finding this guy.
        President Putin. I'm very pleased to see the mood the President of
    the United States is in. It is what we needed. Let me assure you that we
    will work together, and our work will be effective.
        Now there is something I would like to draw your attention to. And
    we ultimately discussed this matter with our U.S. colleagues. We should
    not give a chance to anyone who is either engaged in terror or is
    supporting terror.
        As I understood the second part of your question, concern was--has
    to do with Iraq. We should not forget about those who finance terrorism.
    Of the 19 terrorists who committed the main attacks on September 11th
    against the United States, 16 are citizens of Saudi Arabia, and we
    should not forget about that.
        Now, where has Usama bin Laden taken refuge? They say that somewhere
    between Afghanistan and Pakistan. We know what Mr. Musharraf is doing to
    achieve stability in his country, and we are supporting him. But what
    can happen with armies armed with weapons that exist in Pakistan,
    including weapons of mass destruction--we are not sure on that aspect,
    and we should not forget about that. And we agree with the President of
    the United States and his colleagues who say that we have to make sure
    that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction in its possession.
        Diplomats have carried out a very difficult, a very complex work.
    And we do believe that we have to stay within the framework of the work
    being carried out by the Security Council of the United Nations. And we
    do believe that, together with the United States, we can achieve a
    positive result. As you know, our recent past gives us--we have a
    example of that kind, and the level achieved in our bilateral relations
    between Russia and the United States gives us hope that we can achieve
    such results.
        President Bush. Thank you all. We've got a plane to catch. Don't
    keep us waiting. Thank you all. Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 5:55 p.m. at Catherine's Palace. In his
    remarks, President Putin referred to Usama bin Laden, leader of the Al
    Qaida terrorist organization, and President Pervez Musharraf of
    Pakistan. A reporter referred to Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Al Qaida's
    chief of operations for the Persian Gulf. President Putin spoke in
    Russian, and his remarks were translated by an interpreter.