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7 Sep, 2007 08:43

Russian-U.S. summit in Sydney `Highly constructive and open`

The Russian and American leaders have met in Sydney, Australia, a day ahead of the APEC summit. The Presidents discussed the thorny issue of the U.S. missile-defence shield in Europe and Russia's continuing attempts to join the World Trade Organisation.

It was the first meeting of the two Presidents since the summit held in Kennebukport in July this year.

Vladimir Putin and George Bush discussed various important issues on of the international agenda, but the main subject was the American anti-missile defence plans for Eastern Europe. The U.S.want to deploy ABM elements in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Moscow has strongly opposed this move ever since it was announced.

“We covered all the issues on our agenda. We talked about missile defence deployment in Europe and agreed our experts will go to the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan together. So we're still working on that. We also discussed large-scale projects of interest to the business communities in the U.S. and Russia. We touched upon environmental issues and have very close positions on that. I would like to thank the US President for the highly constructive and open dialogue we enjoyed today. I hope relations between our countries continue to develop in the same positive way,” Vladimir Putin said.  

“I found the conversation to be cordial and constructive.  We want to help to solve the problems and we recognize we can do better in solving problems when we work together,” George Bush underlined. 

Such issues like the status of Kosovo and the Iranian Nuclear Program were also discussed. 

The two Presidents agreed on that the Iranian Nuclear Program should be dealt with by the International Atomic Agency and the UN. And the solution that will be found must be satisfying for the international community, and at the same time not harmful, and in any way restricting for the Iranian people.

Earlier, President Putin signed a deal which will see Australia export uranium to Russia for use in nuclear power stations.

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