Highlights: Obama's summit visit to Russia

Tue Jul 7, 2009 2:36am EDT
 
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - The following are comments by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

AT A MEETING BETWEEN OBAMA AND PUTIN

Obama: "I very much appreciate you taking time to meet with me.

"We had excellent discussions with the president yesterday and I am aware of not only the extraordinary work that you've done on behalf of the Russian people in your previous role as prime minis, uh, as president, but in your current role as prime minister.

"We think there's an excellent opportunity to put U.S.-Russian relations on a much stronger footing.

"And we may not end up agreeing on everything but I think that we can have a tone of mutual respect and consultation that will serve both the American people and the Russian people well.

"Thank you very much, I look forward to a very useful exchange of ideas."

Putin:

"The history of the Russia-U.S. relationship is a long one and has different colors. There were years when our relations flourished and there were grey days and even confrontations. We link hopes for development of our relationship with your name."

Putin said he was looking forward to the meeting and that they had prepared an alpine-style breakfast for Obama.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Conor Sweeney, Gleb Bryanski, writing Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Jon Boyle and Lin Noueihed)

 

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