Statement by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov at Airport on Arrival in Washington, September 19, 2001
1654-19-09-2001
Beginning my short working visit to Washington at the invitation of the US Secretary of State, I would like above all to express the solidarity of the leadership and people of Russia with the people of the United States, which came recently under barbaric terrorist attack. Together with it we grieve for the victims of this monstrous crime. The grief and outrage of America have echoed in the hearts of the citizens of Russia, who had personal experience of the horror of terrorist attacks. I will repeat the words of the Russian President, addressed to the people of the United States, we are with you, we wholly and entirely share your pain, we support you. Once again the fact has been borne home to all of us that terrorism knows no frontiers. Thrown down to all of civilized mankind, the impudent challenge requires a resolute rebuff. Combining the efforts of the whole international community in the fight against the terrorist threat is becoming imperative. It is necessary to cooperate more specifically and effectively, to make maximum use of bilateral and multilateral channels and to create an international legal base. We have practical proposals on that score. We expect this theme to be examined in depth and comprehensively at the upcoming talks in Washington.
During the visit my meetings are scheduled with US President George Bush, his national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, and a number of influential US Congress members. Naturally, we will hold several rounds of consultations with Colin Powell.
The main aim of the talks is the preparation of a meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and George Bush in Shanghai in October 2001 as part of the APEC summit, and of the visit to be paid by the President of the Russian Federation to the US in mid-October, 2001. The intensity of the Russian-American contacts already held recently and those upcoming is a striking testimony to the fact that our dialogue is acquiring positive dynamics, and bilateral relations the necessary durability and predictability.
Much of the attention in the Washington meetings at various levels, undoubtedly, will be devoted to questions of strategic stability. In particular, we will analyze the outcomes of the consultations held between the foreign affairs and defense agencies of the two countries on the interrelated issues of strategic offensive and defensive arms, as had been arranged by our Presidents in Genoa. A timetable for their continuation in the future also will be considered.
I think that a discussion of the most acute regional problems will also take place. Above all, this concerns the situation in the Middle East, in the Balkans and around Iraq. I must say that our approaches to many of the crisis situations are identical or similar, and the differences mainly concern tactical ways to resolve them.
In addition, I'm planning to touch on certain questions of development of trade and economic ties between Russia and the US. In this area some positive shifts have become evident of late, and we need to help in every way the consolidation of this tendency. A number of other questions of bilateral relations between our countries also will be considered.
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