President Bush Meets with President Putin of Russian Federat

July 2, 2007 ,12:28 P.M. EDT,PRESIDENT BUSH: I wanted to congratulate the President for being the only person that caught a fish. A fine catch. Secondly¹, I welcome you to my family home.,And we had a good, casual discussion on a variety of issues. You know, through the course of our relationship there have been times when we've agreed on issues and there's been times when we haven't agreed on issues. But one thing I've found about Vladimir Putin is that he is consistent, transparent², honest and is an easy man to discuss our opportunities and problems with.,joint¹⁴ press availability Monday, July 2, 2007, at Walker's Point in Kennebunkport, Me. Said President Bush, "We had a good, casual discussion on a variety of issues. We had a very long, strategic dialogue that I found to be important, necessary and productive." White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian" src="/upimg/allimg/20070706/1130290.jpg" width="254" align="right" border="0" /> We talked about nuclear security and made great strides in setting a foundation for future relations between the United States and Russia in dealing³ with the nuclear security issues. We talked about our bilateral⁴ relations, we talked about the relations with countries like Iran and North Korea. We had a very long, strategic dialogue that I found to be important, necessary and productive.,And so I welcome you, Vladimir. Thanks for coming.,PRESIDENT PUTIN: (As translated.) I would like to congratulate us with the good work done.,First of all, I would like to thank the hosts for their invitation. And President Bush for this invitation. Indeed, we had a very nice fishing party this morning. We caught one fish, but that was a team effort, and we let it go to the captain -- (laughter) --,PRESIDENT BUSH: Very thoughtful of you. (Laughter.),PRESIDENT PUTIN: -- the 42nd President of the United States. (Laughter.),As for the negotiations⁵, negotiations were very substantial. We discussed basically the entire gamut⁶ of both bilateral issues and international issues. George listed practically all issues that we've touched upon. And I was pleased to note that we are seeking the points of coincidence in our positions and very frequently we do find them. And I'm very grateful to the Bush family for this very warm, homey atmosphere around this meeting, and we appreciate it very much.,I do believe that we have to learn something from the older generation. And the attitude shown both to me and to the members of my delegation⁷ was way beyond the official and protocol⁸ needs. And, additionally, we had an opportunity to have a look at this part of the United States, a fantastic place. We've seen the warmth and the very positive attitude of the people around here and use this opportunity to say to them that we appreciate their warmness and we are grateful for their very warm reception of us.,Mind you, the fish that we caught, we've let it free. (Laughter.),PRESIDENT BUSH: A couple of questions. Tony, you going to call on them? Hold on, please. Please. Tony.,Deb, yes.,Q Mr. President, I have a question for either one, or both of you., PRESIDENT BUSH: Either one of us, okay -- or both of us.,Q Both of you. For you, sir, were you successful in getting President Putin's support for tough sanctions, like cargo⁹ inspections¹⁰ against Iran?,PRESIDENT BUSH: We spent a lot of time talking about the Iranian issue, and we both agree -- excuse me, go ahead. We spent a lot of time talking about the Iranian issue. I am concerned about the Iranians' attempt to develop the technologies, know-how¹¹ to develop a nuclear weapon. The President shares that -- I'm a little hesitant to put words in his mouth, but I think he shares that same concern. After all, this is an issue we've been talking about for about six years.,And I have come to the conclusion that when Russia and America speaks with, you know, along the same lines, it tends to have an effect. And, therefore, I appreciate very much the Russian attitude in the United Nations. I have been counting on the Russian's support to send a clear message to the Iranians, and that support and that message is a strong message, and, hopefully, we'll be able to convince the regime that we have no problems with the people in Iran, but we do have a problem with a regime that is in defiance¹³ of international norm. And so we discussed a variety of ways to continue sending a joint message.,And, by the way, one other issue that I didn't mention in my opening my comments that I think you'll find interesting is that President Putin proposed a regional approach to missile defense¹⁵; that we ought to work together bilaterally¹⁶, as well as work through the Russia-NATO Council. And I'm in strong agreement with that concept.,That's all I've got to say, Deb. Have you got something else?,Q Well, I still would like to know --,PRESIDENT BUSH: You just got wedged out, sorry.,Q I still would like to know if you're far apart on how tough the sanctions should be.,PRESIDENT BUSH: We're close on recognizing that we've got to work together to send a common message.,Q Okay.,PRESIDENT PUTIN: So far, we have managed to work within the framework of the Security Council, and I think we will continue to be successful on this front. Recently, we've seen some signals coming from Iran with regard to interaction, cooperation with the IAEA. Mr. Solana also brings us some positive data and information. I think all of this would contribute to further, substantial intercourse¹⁷ on this issue.,Q -- Mr. Putin made a proposal for anti-ballistic missile cooperation between Russia and the United States. And you called it "interesting." In which direction your cooperation? And what's wrong with European countries using this calculation? And if it is no breakthrough in the foreseeable future, maybe it's a time to make a (inaudible)? Thank you.,PRESIDENT BUSH: Thanks. It's more than an interesting idea, it's an idea that we're following up on through consultative meetings, which we've started. And as I told you, the President made a very -- I thought a very constructive¹⁸ and bold, strategic move, and that is why don't we broaden the dialogue and include Europe, through NATO and the Russia-NATO Council -- I don't know if want to expand on that, or not.,PRESIDENT PUTIN: Oh, I have to answer that, too? As President Bush has already said, we do support the idea of the continued consultations²⁰ on this score. At the same time, we do believe that the number of parties to this consultation¹⁹ could be expanded through the European countries who are interested in resolving the issue. And the idea is to achieve this through the forum²¹ of the Russia-NATO Council.,But our proposal is not limited to this only. We propose establishing an information exchange center in Moscow. We've agreed on that a few years back; it's time now to put this decision into practice. This is not yet all. A similar center could be established in one of the European capitals, in particular, in Brussels, for example. This could have been a single system that would work on line.,In this case, there would be no need to place any more facilities in Europe -- I mean, these facilities in Czech Republic and the missile base in Poland. And if need be, we are prepared to involve in this work, not only the Gabala radar²², which we rent from the Azerbaijanis -- if necessary, we are prepared to modernize²³ it. And if that is not enough, we would be prepared to engage in this system also a newly built radar, early warning system in the south of Russia.,Such cooperation I believe would result in raising to an entirely²⁴ new level the quality of cooperation between Russia and the United States. And for all practical purposes, this would lead to a gradual development of strategic partnership²⁵ in the area of security.