With US-Russian relations under heavy strain, President George
W. Bush and President Vladimir Putin will meet July 1-2 in a US sea
resort for a wide-ranging discussion of world affairs, the Bush
administration officials said Wednesday.
It's an opportunity for him and President Putin to continue what
is always, for the two of them, candid and very honest
conversations about things that matter," Bush spokesman Tony Snow
said.
The two also will see each other next week in Heiligendamm,
Germany, during the annual Group of Eight (G8) summit of
industrialized nations.
The US meeting will be at the oceanfront compound of Bush's
father, former President George H.W. Bush, at Kennebunkport, Maine,
in the far northeastern United States.
The session comes at a time when many experts say relations
between the two nations are at their lowest point since the Soviet
era.
On Tuesday, Putin warned that a planned US missile shield for
Europe would turn the region into a "powder keg."
Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of
Defense Robert Gates have tried to reassure the Russians that the
missile system is aimed at preventing attack against the United
States or Europe not by Russia but by an antagonistic state such as
Iran or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Washington and Moscow also are at odds over Kosovo, a province
of Serbia that is under the administration of the United Nations
and NATO. Russia says a Western-backed draft UN resolution that
would endorse supervised independence for the Serbian province is
unacceptable.
Bush and Putin will discuss Iran, civil nuclear cooperation,
missile defense and other issues, Snow said.
"Cooperation between the United States and Russia is important
in solving regional conflicts, stopping the spread of weapons of
mass destruction and combating terrorism and extremism," Snow said
in announcing the visit.
Asked why Bush chose to hold the meeting at his father's house
in Maine, Snow said, "Why not? It's a good place to have it."
Bush also has met with Putin at the presidential retreat at Camp
David in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains north of Washington. Putin
also was the first head of state to visit Bush's ranch in Texas in
November, 2001. "You only invite your friends into your house,"
Bush said then.
(China Daily?via agencies?May 31, 2007)
