Obama-Medvedev summit in Russia

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The following are comments from U.S. President Barack Obama and Kremlin chief Dmitry Medvedev at a summit in Moscow on Monday.

OBAMA ON MEDVEDEV

Obama:

"First of all, this is now my second bilateral meeting with President Medvedev and we also had a series of telephone calls and telephone exchanges. Throughout our interactions I found him to be straightforward, professional. He is clear about interests of the Russian people but he is also interested in finding out what the interests of the United States are.... I trust President Medvedev to not only listen and to negotiate constructively but also to follow through on the agreements that are contained here today.

ON RUSSIA-U.S. RELATIONS

Obama:

"President Medvedev and I are committed to leaving behind us suspicion and rivalry of the past so that we can advance the interests that we hold in common. Today we made meaningful progress in demonstrating through deeds and words what a U.S.-Russia relationship can look like in the 21st century.

ON NUCLEAR SUMMIT

Obama:

"We actually suggested a global nuclear security summit that we intend to host next year and I discussed with President Medvedev the strong possibility that a subsequent summit can be hosted by Russia where we bring all countries together.

ON GLOBAL MISSILE Defense

Medvedev:

"We need to jointly think about configuration of the global missile defense."

ON GEORGIA

Obama:

"I won't pretend that the United States and Russia agree on every issue. President Medvedev indicated that we have had frank discussion on some areas where we disagree."

"For instance, we had frank discussion on Russia, I mean Georgia, and I re-iterated my firm belief that Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected. If even as we work through our disagreements on Georgia's course, we do agree that no one has interest in renewed military conflict. Going forward, we must speak candidly to resolve these differences peacefully and constructively."

"President Medvedev and I are committed to leaving behind the suspicion and rivalry of the past."

OBAMA ON POWER DIVISION IN RUSSIA

Obama:

"My understanding is that President Medvedev is the president and Prime Minister Putin is the prime minister and that they allocate power in accordance with Russia's form of government, in the same way that we allocate power in the United States.

"My strong impression is that President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin are working very effectively together and our interest is in working together with the Russian government as a whole in order to achieve the improved bilateral relationship that I think can be accomplished.

ON NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION

Medvedev:

"The non-proliferation issue is the most important for our states. We are bearing the responsibility. Unfortunately the situation in the world is not changing for the better."

"There are regions where the presence of nuclear weapons may create colossal problems and in these areas we should most closely work with our partners."

ON AFGHANISTAN

Obama:

"Second, we have taken important steps forward to strengthen our security through greater cooperation."

"President Medvedev and I have agreed on the need to combat the threat of violent extremism, particularly from Al-Qaeda."

"This (today's agreement) is a substantial contribution by Russia to an international effort. It will save the United States time and resources for giving our troops the support they need."

ON IRAN

Obama:

"Iran also poses a serious challenge, due to its failure to live up to international obligations."

"This is not just a problem for the United States but raises the prospect of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East which would endanger global security, while Iran's ballistic missile program could pose a threat to the entire region."

"That's why I'm pleased that we've agreed on a joint statement on cooperation."

ON NORTH KOREA

Obama:

"North Korea has abandoned its own commitments and violated international law and that's why I'm pleased Russia has joined us in the UN security council resolution that calls for strong steps."

ON MISSILE Defense

Obama:

"I am pleased that we've agreed on a joint statement on cooperation on missile defense and a joint threat assessment of the ballistic missile challenges of the 21st century, including those posed by Iran and North Korea.

"We have agreed that we are going to continue to discuss this critical issue. That is part of the joint statements that we have signed. I also believe that it is entirely legitimate for our discussions to talk not only about offensive weapon system but also defensive weapon system. Part of what got us through the Cold War was a sufficient sense of parity and deterrent capability."

"Any discussion about strategy and security should include defensive as well as offensive capabilities. The difference that we had has been on specifics of a missile defense system that the United States views as a priority, not to deal with Russia but to deal with a missile coming in from around the world -- North Korea or some other state."

"What we would like to do is to work with Russia to advance a system that ensures that a stray missile -- whether it is one or ten or a handful -- coming from a third source, that we have capabilities to prevent those from doing damage. I think we can arrive at those kind of understandings but it is going to take some hard work because it requires breaking down long-standing suspicions.

Medvedev:

"We have agreed that defensive and offensive weapons should be viewed as a whole ... We made a joint statement on missile defense although we have differences on a range of positions."

"Of course, the missile defense, speaking more precisely, not the missile defense but the issue of the third positioning region is a complicated topic... From my side I would like to note, in our memorandum of understanding we are talking about a link between offensive and defensive weapons and this is already a step forward."

"No one is saying that missile defense is harmful in itself or that it poses a threat to someone. Quite the contrary, it is aimed at solving a number of strategic tasks. The question is to peg this or that configuration of missile defense to interests of other countries."

"And what I would like to highlight is that our American partners -- in contrast with what was happening in the past years -- have taken a pause and are studying the situation and based on this will formulate their final position."

"So at least it is a step forward to reach a compromise on this quite difficult problem."

"Because before all we were hearing was that all decisions have been made and they have nothing to do with you but they are not a threat to you."

ON NUCLEAR ARMS TREATY

Obama:

"We've taken important steps forward to increase nuclear security and to stop the spread of nuclear weapons ... We have signed a joint understanding for a follow-on treaty on the START agreement which will reduce our warheads and delivery systems by up to a third from our current treaty limitations. This legally binding treaty will be completed by the end of this year."

(Compiled by Amie Ferris-Rotman, Alfred Kueppers, Gleb Bryanski and Denis Dyomkin; Editing by Charles Dick)