Bush and Putin hold 'get along' summit
George Bush and Vladimir Putin meet in Slovakia today to demonstrate that they can work together despite White House complaints that Putin is retreating from democracy and Russian objections to Washington “meddling” in places like Ukraine.
Bush said yesterday he was concerned about Putin’s restrictions on press freedom and about other democratic backsliding.
But the US president emphasised he did not want to harm “a close relationship with Vladimir” and the White House said it was not worried Moscow was reverting to its past.
“This is not the Soviet Union you’re seeing,” US national security adviser Stephen Hadley said.
“That is history. This is a different Russia.”
Ahead of their summit, Putin focused, too, on the “many spheres of common interest” between the two nations. While he said Russia must be allowed to develop a democracy that fit with its history, he struck a conciliatory note.
“A friendly look from the outside, even a critical look, won’t hurt and will only help us,” he said.
Bush, the first US president to visit the 12-year-old nation of Slovakia, was given a red-carpet welcome yesterday in Bratislava – the last stop on his five-day reconciliation visit to Europe.
A young man and woman in native costume presented him with a plate of bread and salt, a good-luck tradition, while members of the welcoming party shouted “slava”, which means “glory”.
Bush had raced through a nine-hour stop in Germany to see German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder after harmonious talks with allies in Brussels, Belgium. Iran was a prominent subject in his talks all along the way.
The main question was whether allies should use rewards or punishment to achieve the goal of a non-nuclear Iran, or, as Hadley put it: “Should there be a mix of carrots and sticks and who should the carrots come from and what should they be?”
Bush expressed general support for negotiations by Germany, Britain and France that offer Iran incentives to permanently abandon uranium enrichment that is at the heart of its suspected nuclear weapons ambitions.
“We will work with them to convince the mullahs that they need to give up their nuclear ambitions,” he said.
But the United States has resisted taking part in the European diplomacy and has insisted so far that Tehran should not be rewarded. Germany has offered to sell Iran an Airbus aircraft and other non-military items to encourage Tehran to keep negotiating and drop its nuclear programme.
But Bush has suggested that the best strategy might be to ask the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions. “They were caught enriching uranium after they had signed a treaty saying they wouldn’t enrich uranium,” Bush said.
Security was extraordinary for Bush’s stay in Mainz, Germany, with all shops and streets shut down and most residents told to stay indoors behind closed shutters.
About 5,000 protesters braved the elements, including a wet snow, for a peaceful anti-Bush rally and parade far from the palace where Bush and Schroeder met.
Before leaving Germany, Bush stopped at the Wiesbaden Army Airfield to thank US soldiers for fighting in Iraq. He said they had “acted in the great liberating tradition of our nation”.
Schroeder was one of the fiercest critics of the US-led invasion of Iraq and, even now, Germany refuses to send personnel to Baghdad to train security forces.
Germany also laments Bush’s refusal to participate in an international climate change treaty and wants the United States to get involved in Europe’s negotiations with Iran.
But, standing alongside Bush at a news conference, the chancellor said: “We have agreed that we are not going to constantly emphasise where we’re not agreeing, but we want to focus on where we do agree.”
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