Russian Foreign Minister Highly Values "trustful Dialogue" Between Russian, US Leaders

The head of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov considers the fact that the Presidents of Russia and the United States have established "such a trustful and sincere personal dialogue" "highly important". This he told journalists in New York City while commenting on results of Vladimir Putin's visit to the USA. According to the words of the Russian top diplomat, this is particularly important because the leaders "clearly see the prospect of their countries' development and development of bilateral relations in the context of the unfolding situation in the world." "We hope, he pointed out, that the visit and the talks, extremely bountiful and substantial, will open a new page in the history of Russian-American relations." The minister said that successful solution of this problem or that is much dependent on the political will. This refers to Russian-American relations as much as to relations of any other kind, Igor Ivanov explained, for solving problems and developing towards compromise is much easier when strategic viewing of prospects of developing bilateral relations is present. "It is important that this strategic viewing should evolve in the direction defined by the leaders during the summit," the minister said. When asked about the adopted Plan for joint actions of Russia and the USA, Ivanov pointed out that the document was "agreed upon and accepted." He calls it, "as Americans say, some kind of a roadmap for us to outline directions of joint activity." The minister explained that his words refer to political and economic relations as well as to international relations. "Such plan was necessary for us to coordinate our efforts more efficiently," he said. Speaking of the results of the summit, Ivanov also pointed out that Kremlin "thought it unnecessary" to elaborate a special document on the issues of strategic stability. He explained that "this subject reflects general character of relations" and it was therefore "decided to include all those problems, as well as the problems of non-proliferation in the general document." He highlighted that this, however, "by no means diminishes the importance of the subject."