[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 46 (Monday, November 19, 2001)]
[Pages 1659-1661]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Joint Statement by President George W. Bush and President Vladimir V. 
Putin of Russia on the New Russian-American Economic Relationship

November 13, 2001

    We confirm our determination to foster a new dynamic in American-
Russian economic interaction. We seek to harness the forces

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of global commerce in order to improve contacts between our people, 
increase their prosperity, and to further strengthen the integration of 
Russia into the world economy.
    We are committed to creating conditions that will enhance our trade 
and investment relations and help Russia reach its economic potential as 
a fully integrated and leading member of the world economy. Russia has a 
role to play in this century as an engine of world growth and a center 
of innovative thinking.
    We will work together to build confidence in the climate for trade 
and investment between our two countries. An important element of this 
activity is Russia's integration into the rules-based global trading 
system of the World Trade Organization. We confirm our commitment and 
place considerable priority to working together in an effort to 
accelerate Russia's WTO accession negotiations, based on standard 
conditions.
    We emphasize our commitment to combating money laundering and the 
financing of terrorism.
    In line with our desire to enhance the role of the American and 
Russian business communities in developing our commercial relations, we 
note the successful visit to Russia of an American business delegation 
led by United States Commerce Secretary Donald Evans. We welcome as well 
progress to date of the newly-established Russian-American Business 
Dialogue. We look forward to the presentation of its initial 
recommendations to our two governments early in 2002. We encourage the 
Dialogue to continue to identify areas where our laws and regulations 
impede trade and investment, to pinpoint new opportunities for business, 
to strengthen the rule of law, and thus to attract new entrants to the 
commerce between our two countries.
    We note that significant progress has been made in strengthening our 
economic relations since we met in Genoa. The first example is the 
completion and operationalization of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, 
the largest U.S.-Russian joint investment to date. The second is the 
recent breakthrough on the Sakhalin I oil and gas project, which opens 
the door to the single, largest private investment project in Russia, 
representing $12 billion in projected capital investment in the region 
and creating up to 10,000 new jobs. We declare support to other U.S.-
Russian investment projects in various fields and, above all, in high-
technology areas. In order to ensure the participation of American 
representatives in successful investment projects in the Russian Far 
East, the United States intends to officially present a request to open 
in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk a branch office of its Consulate General in 
Vladivostok.
    We welcome the renewed efforts of the Export-Import Bank, the 
Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the Trade and Development 
Agency of the United States to promote bilateral trade and investment 
opportunities through project finance, risk insurance, and project 
assessment, as well as their readiness to expand financing in support of 
our growing economic relationship.
    Small and medium businesses are important to the growth of both our 
economies. We are mindful of the tax, legal, regulatory and finance 
environment necessary for these entrepreneurs to flourish. As the 
foundations of the rule of law and free market economy strengthen in 
Russia, small and medium enterprise will expand. The United States is 
increasing funding to a number of programs, such as the European Bank 
for Reconstruction and Development's Russia Small Business Fund, to 
provide financing and assistance to Russian entrepreneurs and to prepare 
Russian financial institutions to be able to carry out such financing 
independently through their access to such programs.
    A sound, transparent and competitive banking sector is critical to 
sustained economic growth. To this end, we endorse the launch of a 
public-private dialogue among banks, businesses, financial institutions 
and financial authorities to identify actions that would promote the 
growth of the banking sector in Russia consistent with the needs of a 
modern free-market economy. We stand firmly in support of the principle 
of non-discrimination in our cooperation in the banking sector.
    We reaffirm our resolve to seek practical solutions and achieve 
measurable results to even the most difficult issues.

Note: An original was not available for verification of the content of 
this joint statement.

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