Russia expects Medvedev-Obama meeting to give impetus to bilateral ties-Prikhodko
MOSCOW. July 3 (Interfax) - The Russian authorities expect the meeting of the leaders of Russia and the United States to give serious impetus to all areas of bilateral cooperation, Russian presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko told a briefing on Friday.
"We expect the summit to give good, serious momentum to a very wide variety of areas of cooperation with American partners, including both the strengthening of strategic stability and joint responses to present- day challenges - terrorism and global warming, as well as challenges relating to the situation in certain regions such as the Middle East, Afghanistan, North Korea and the situation in Iraq," Prikhodko said.
"Exceptional importance" has been given to Obama's visit to Russia, the official said.
"The president is constantly holding various briefings with representatives of different agencies and Security Council members to measure their progress and to prepare documents," he said.
Russia and the United States will not be able to begin tackling more serious issues dealing with strategic arms reductions and missile defense problems without an appropriate level of trust, Prikhodko said.
"Saying that it would be easy to move forward would mean deluding ourselves. The specter of our interests has not always coincided. Sometimes, they contradict each other directly or indirectly. But the most important thing is the choice that can be made in this situation - either to work to expand the sphere of mutual understanding or to focus on defending our own position on sensitive issues," he said.
"Today, we sense the American administration's real desire to work based on the first option - to expand cooperation and to increase the number of possible issues on which we see eye to eye. The second stage will involve implementing these agreements. This work will be meticulous and complex. But, nevertheless, we think that it will be successful," he added.
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