#3 - RW 262
Russian-US summit to be held at Camp David in September - paper
Interfax

Moscow, 19 June: Economic cooperation between Russia and the United States will be high on the agenda of the Camp David summit set for September, the US ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, has said.

The meeting President Vladimir Putin and President George W. Bush held in St Petersburg on 1 June was very productive and laid the groundwork for the

Russian president's visit to the United States, the ambassador said in an interview published in Moskovskiy Komsomolets [newspaper] on Thursday [19 June].

The Camp David meeting will be held a few days after a second Russian-US

energy summit, which will probably be held in St Petersburg, Vershbow said. He hopes the energy summit will culminate in specific economic agreements.

The meeting at Camp David may also take up international security issues, Vershbow said. He believes the threats that exist today will not go away before September.

The convergence of Russian and US views on the dangers posed by the Iranian weapons of mass destruction programme is a major outcome of the St Petersburg summit, Vershbow said.

Commenting on reports about US plans to redeploy its military bases to other countries, Vershbow said that no decisions have been made and discussions are still under way. Whatever steps the United States takes, it will contact

Russia on the matter, he said.

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