Remarks with Russian President Vladimir Putin Before Their MeetingSecretary Condoleezza Rice
The Green Room, Kremlin
Moscow, Russia
April 20, 2005 PRESIDENT PUTIN: (in Russian) I’d like to welcome Dr. Rice and her colleagues and I’m very pleased to welcome you here in the Kremlin. I'm very pleased to welcome you here in the Kremlin in your new capacity as the Secretary of State. And indeed it's a great pleasure to us as we have established a very business-like rapport with you over the past four years. And with your immediate involvement, the current Russia-U.S. relationship has been brought up to this high level which is now existing.
And we count a lot on the continuation of this line on both sides, including on the U.S. side. And our recent meeting in Europe with the U.S. President was another justification of this line. Not only did we discuss most topical issues of our bilateral relationship and national questions, but also we signed quite a few important documents for Russia and the U.S.
Naturally, we expect the U.S. President will be visiting with us to participate in celebration of the V-Day over the end of World War II, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of that great victory.
SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much, Mr. President, and thank you for taking the time to receive me. This is my first time in the Kremlin since becoming Secretary of State. I bring greetings from the President, who looks very much forward to his meetings with you on the margins of the May 9th celebration. Sergei Lavrov and I have had very fruitful discussions about a number of concrete matters, in particular, about how to make progress along the checklist before your meeting with the President.
And so, I look forward to our discussion today on various issues that are of interest to us: our common interest in regional stability, our common interest in the global war on terrorism, on economic development in the world. And so, I very much look forward to those discussions.
2005/T5-7
Released on April 21, 2005
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