For all the misery caused by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, they have at
least brought two former Cold War enemies closer together.
Both sides are lowering expectations for Russian President Vladimir
Putin’s journey to the United States, but the ex-KGB agent’s summit with
President Bush marks a dramatic step forward in the relationship between the
world’s two remaining superpowers.
Putin is scheduled to arrive at Andrews Air Force Base late tonight and
spends the evening as Bush’s guest at Blair House, across Pennsylvania
Avenue from the White House.
Full Agenda
The two get down to business Tuesday morning, with a series of
discussions on the war against terrorism, nuclear stockpile reductions and
Bush’s desire to build a missile defense shield.
Both men warmed to one another in their first meeting this summer in
Slovenia, so much so that Bush was criticized in many U.S. quarters for
being too naive in his embrace of the Russian.
“I looked the man in the eye, I found him to be very straight forward and
trustworthy, and we had a very good dialogue,” Bush said. “I was able to get
a sense of his soul.”
At that earlier meeting, Bush tried to soften Putin’s opposition to U.S.
plans for a national missile defense shield, arguing the U.S. and Russia now
are threatened by the same rogue elements the system aims to guard against.
The terrorist attacks believed to have been plotted by Osama bin Laden — who
recently mentioned Putin as a target — have bolstered that point.
Unilateral Cuts
National security officials say it’s unlikely this summit will result in
any formal warhead-for-warhead arms control treaty. But Bush told a small
group of Russian journalists this afternoon that he had decided to reduce
offensive nuclear weapons — whether Putin goes along or not.
“We’ll talk about offensive weapons, and the desire of both our nations
to reduce our offensive weapons. I have a number that I’ll share with him,
and it is going to be substantially lower than today’s weaponry. And I
presume he’ll have a number that he’ll share with me,” Bush said. “There
will a specific range that I’ll be talking about, and perhaps he will say
the same thing. Regardless of whether he were to or not, I’m going to …
reduce our weapons. It is the right thing for America to do.”
In an interview on ABCNEWS’ This Week Sunday, National Security
Adviser Condoleezza Rice said the arms talks were just one aspect of the
evolving partnership with Russia.
“This is progress that is going forward step by step,” she said. “The
president has been very clear that our purpose here is to change the nature
of the relationship with the Russians. That includes changing the nature of
the nuclear relationship.”
Officials said to expect the diplomatic “heavy lifting” to be done
Tuesday in the Washington meetings. The two leaders then spend two days at
Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas for more intimate and wide-ranging talks.
The two will take the stage Tuesday for a joint press conference at the
White House following their morning meetings. Though he’ll share the
limelight with the U.S. president, Putin will take to his own podium at the
Russian Embassy in the evening to deliver a wide-ranging speech on warming
U.S.-Russian relations.
Putin was the first world leader to phone Bush with sympathies after
hijacked jetliners destroyed the World Trade Centers and struck the
Pentagon. When the United States put its worldwide forces on the highest
alert in response to the attacks, Russia’s military stood down.
“We believe that we should be partners and perhaps even allies with the
United States in very many areas,” Putin told ABCNEWS’ Barbara Walters
earlier this month.
“And as to helping the American people in combatting
this evil, there can be no doubt about the fact that we will do everything
possible.”
— Brian Hartman, Katy Textor and Ann Compton
Copyright 2001 ABCNEWS.com. All Rights Reserved.
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