Opening the meeting, Vladimir Putin said that agreements reached during his talks with US President George W. Bush in Ljubljana and Genoa were being implemented, and that mutual dialogue had reached a sufficiently high level.
Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush agreed in Genoa that both sides would discuss possible strategic offensive arms cuts. In this connection, the Russian side is interested in the following aspects, namely, residual ceilings, reduction deadlines, as well as control, confidence-building and transparency measures.
The President also said that he had recently received a message from George W. Bush on the results of the visits by US Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce to Moscow, and that he completely agreed with the US leader’s opinion.
Vladimir Putin and Donald Rumsfeld discussed international terrorism, as well as expanded political, economic and military relations.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov also took part in the talks.