22 December 2001
Prime Minister:
Good Afternoon everyone. Can I say I am absolutely delighted to welcome President Putin to the United Kingdom. Following this press conference we will return to Chequers to continue our discussions and I am also very pleased of course that his wife, Ludmilla, is able to join him and they will be staying overnight as our guests at Chequers.
This is a relationship that I value hugely. Even before President Putin was elected I took the view that here was someone with a very clear vision of Russia’s future and a very clear strategy of how to make that future happen, and also that it was going to be enormously to the benefit of Russia, of Britain, of the wider world that we develop close ties between us. I am therefore delighted again to say that the relations between Britain and Russia have not been as close as this for many, many years and that is enormously to our mutual benefit.
We began our discussions today, as you would expect, by reviewing the situation in Afghanistan. As we said, yesterday was 100 days since the attacks of 11 September and a huge amount has happened in that time and I believe that the international coalition and the international community can take great pride in the progress that has been made, military, diplomatic and humanitarian, and Russia can also take great pride at the key role it has played within that international coalition. If I may I would like to thank again those UK forces who have arrived in Afghanistan and who are already making a difference there on the ground. They and forces from the United Kingdom and from other countries will make up the International Security Assistance Force who have an essential role in stabilising the future for Afghanistan. Tomorrow, in a further indication of the progress that has been made, the new interim government will be inaugurated in Kabul. As I have said many times before, we will support them for the long term, but it is their country, it is their future and our role is to help the people in Afghanistan to build a fairer and better future for the people there, that future controlled and governed by the people there.
Again I would pay tribute to President Putin for the support Russia has given within the United Nations Security Council both on diplomatic and military questions. It is perhaps a measure too at how relations between our countries have strengthened that we can say that co-operation on intelligence matters since 11 September has been unprecedentedly close. To build on those links that have developed, we have agreed to the formation of a new bilateral working group on terrorism. That will get under way as soon as possible and allow our two countries to co-operate in defeating this attack upon the civilised world.
We discussed also Russia’s relations with NATO. The proposal that has been made for a step change in NATO-Russia relations has achieved I believe broad acceptance and we can now enter into the detailed discussions on the working of the new NATO-Russia Council. What I have found extraordinary and encouraging is the way not just Russia but our NATO partners have embraced the idea of this new relationship in a way again that would have been frankly unthinkable a few years ago. There is an openness to explore common ground which I believe will help improve security and make the world a safer place. So we see a Russia today that is changing its relations with the United States, with us, with NATO, with the European Union and becoming an ever stronger player on the world stage.
We also agreed to further co-operation on the destruction of chemical weapons. The Defence Secretary is signing an agreement with his Russian counterpart on this and we have set aside some £12 million of assistance. We hope next year to be in a position to complete agreement on assistance for the clean-up of nuclear submarines.
We discussed of course also the situation in the Middle East and our desire to see progress there despite the difficulties. I was interested to get from the President himself an assessment of the economic reform programme he is putting forward, with Russia set for growth this year of some 5%, which is a remarkable achievement. We discussed a number of trade issues and I would like to place on record our strong support for Russia’s membership of the WTO and our determination as Britain and within Europe to work with Russia to make sure the accession to the WTO can happen as swiftly as possible.
So once again Vladimir, welcome here, it is wonderful to see you here. Thank you for the discussions we have had already and thank you perhaps most of all for the leadership that you have shown in these past months which is daily contributing to a new relationship between Russia and the rest of the world.
President Putin
Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. First of all may I most sincerely thank the Prime Minister of Great Britain and his wife for the invitation, for this kind invitation for myself and my wife. This is both a great honour and a great pleasure. We are delighted to visit with the Prime Minister of Britain at his home. It is very interesting for us. I must say it is an ancient house, it has a long history. Mr Blair and his wife were very kind and told us some stories connected with the house, with the place itself, but the most important thing is that we have the opportunity in a relaxed atmosphere to exchange our views on bilateral issues and on global international problems that are of practical interest and importance for the people of the UK and for the peoples of the Russian Federation.
I would like to stress that I quite agree with the assessment of my colleague, the year has indeed been a turning point for the destiny of the world. We have not just understood the joint threat, the common threat that terrorism represents for us, we understood that we must fight it together and in this context of course we spent quite a significant amount of time, in this our first talk, to our co-operation in jointly fighting terrorism and discussing the issues of today’s Afghanistan and Afghanistan’s future.
The talks were constructive and just as constructively the Russia-NATO discussion will continue. I must say that the idea of meetings at 20 in NATO was formulated by the Prime Minister when he was visiting us with a working visit. He in fact came up with the idea in my house and I very much hope that in his own house he will come up with nice new ideas as well. Recently he came up with the initiative of bringing Russia closer to the EU and another initiative I would like to stress, another British Prime Minister’s initiative and Mr Berlusconi’s initiative was to accelerate Russia’s joining WTO as far as NATO is concerned first. Now the formula proposed by Prime Minister Blair satisfies Russia and I think this is one of the few realistic possibilities to change the quality of the Russia-NATO relationship, and most importantly this is one of the few realistic possibilities and options to change the situation in the world with the view of creating a single security system in Europe. It is very important that we have agreed on the timetable of our future work and by May 2002 the format of this new relationship at 20 will be established. Russia is ready for such an agreement.
Last year the Russia-EU relationship developed positively and very dynamically. The EU is our priority partner and the EU as a priority partner should grow of course both in terms of our political dialogue when we discuss security matters, anti-terrorism matters and last but not least it is also trade and economic relations. We discussed the topic of EU enlargement and how it will inter-relate with Russia also in great detail, we talked a lot about stability. I once again stated Russia’s approach to the ABM Treaty and our assessment of the US unilateral decision to exit this treaty. Once again I want to reiterate we are not going to over-dramatise the situation and we hope that the dialogue with all our partners, including our US partners, will continue. I informed Prime Minister Blair about our conversation with the US President that happened recently. I talked to him by phone from Moscow and I informed Prime Minister Blair that we agreed with the President to intensify our contacts in this area through our Foreign Offices and Ministries of Defence.
It seems to me that our position is accepted and understood. We discussed a number of regional issues, the situation in the Middle East in particular. On the whole we discussed a full range of international issues and we once again became convinced that our vision of international affairs is fully in line with the relationship between Russia and Britain and our personal relationship with the Prime Minister. In terms of the bilateral relationship we paid a lot of attention to the basis of our trade and economic interaction. I met the leadership of the CBI and other representatives of business in the UK. These companies are undertaking multi-billion projects in the Russian Federation and I am convinced that through these projects they will make a contribution to economic growth not just in Russia but for stable economic growth in Europe. Britain is one of the five leading trading partners for Russia. We highly value and appreciate your help in our structural reforms and in our general market reforms in Russia but activity of such British giants, whose leaders I met, like Shell, BT and their participation in joint energy projects, multi-billion projects, is the most convincing sign of our co-operation, that the projects have intensified, that the commitment has intensified and we hope soon this commitment will translate into large-scale new projects. We are hoping that British export credits and guarantees will resume and this is very much in line with our one stop shop for privatisation policy. We are happy to work more actively on the subject of PSAs - Production Sharing Agreements - as well. Now we could make a gesture in return, or we could expect a gesture in return and we could hope that anti-dumping procedures could be revised, the ones that are now in force against certain Russian exports at the level of the EU.
Next year we are looking forward to large-scale events in terms of economic co-operation in April. This activity will culminate in the Russian Economic Forum that is going to be held in London in April. We selected London to be the platform where we would present, where we would showcase Russia’s economy. We chose London for many reasons but also because of the intense relations that has developed between Russia and the UK. We greatly appreciate the Prime Minister’s support to this event, I think that is a very good sign of mutually beneficial contacts between our two countries.
And finally, I would like to say that we look forward to the next year with hope. We have a good basis for bilateral co-operation and we have good grounds to believe that next year the relationship will develop just as intensively. There are so many of you here and I would like to take the opportunity to wish you, ladies and gentlemen of the press, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thank you.
Question
Prime Minister, can I ask you to comment on the interdiction of a tanker in the English Channel and express what concern you have about the possibility of terrorist material being smuggled into Britain? And can I ask you both whether you had the chance to discuss Iraq, whether you are concerned at the suggestion that they are developing weapons of mass destruction, and particularly President Putin, do you believe that military action would be an appropriate way to deal with any threat of development of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq?
Prime Minister:
First of all in relation to Iraq, I have nothing really to add to what I have said already. There will be a Phase 2 of the actions against international terrorism, we have made our position very clear about the need to deal with weapons of mass destruction and the importance of ensuring that the United Nations resolutions in this regard are properly implemented. But as I have said many times before, I know that in that phase 2 any action that is taken will be within the deliberation and consultation of key allies.
In respect of the first part, which is the interdiction of the ship earlier today, I can’t comment on the potential nature of the threat itself but I can simply say this, that we remain on top level vigilance throughout these coming weeks and even if the risk is only a potential risk we will not hesitate to take any action that we think necessary in order to investigate any potential threat. This is a time when even if it is from an excess of caution that we act, I think it is important that we do so. So it is too early to say frankly what the investigation of the particular ship has shown, but even should it be the case that in this particular instance it turns out that we can satisfy ourselves that there is no threat, nonetheless I believe it is absolutely essential that we remain totally vigilant and even if the possibility of any such threat is remote, that we act, and I hope that people understand that. We do not wish to cause inconvenience or difficulty to anyone but the protection of our national security must be paramount.
President Putin
You know I wasn’t aware of what was going on in the English Channel. Now just before the press conference one of my British colleagues told me what was going on and I jokingly said you should look for them better, you know your search procedures should be more efficient. But now speaking quite in earnest and seriously then I fully agree with the Prime Minister. This is no place for jokes when we are talking about national security we should of course act within the law and we should act diligently and carefully but we should also act vigorously, professionally. And to answer the second half of your question about possible nuclear terrorism, now we have an appropriate initiative within the UN dealing with this subject. We are for adopting an appropriate document that would stipulate certain rules for combating such nuclear terrorism. And secondly, this is one of the most important subjects for our joint co-operation at 20 in NATO and with NATO. Non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and means of their delivery and anti-terrorism measures, these are the real threats that worry all of us. This is exactly what we propose should be discussed in this forum and if we join our efforts, if we act together, the efficiency of anything we do will multiply by several factors.
Question:
I would like to ask the Prime Minister and the President of Russia if possible, after you have given such high appreciation to this joint decision of working at 20 in the format of Russia-NATO, could you tell us a few words about this possible new mechanism, what will it look like?
Prime Minister:
As you probably know, the idea is that in certain key areas, defined areas, and action against international terrorism is one of them, that what we do is we actually come together at 20 and I think that the idea therefore of a new Russia-NATO Council where we are working closely together in these defined areas and where there is genuine joint decision making is an indication of the greater confidence there is in our relationship today. Because the fact is we can see, in dealing with issues like international terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as the President was saying a moment or two ago, we have got common interests in these areas. For the security of the world we need to make sure that these evils are combated and defeated, and so to be able to have a serious discussion where we followed through with action at the level of 20 I think is important. Now as was just being said a moment or two ago, there are many issues that have to be decided and consultations to take place before we can move forward on it, but I think there is very broad acceptance of the principle of that idea.
President Putin
You know there are two possible approaches here. Approach number one, we could identify areas of co-operation where Russia will not take part in NATO consultations and then we can say Russia then joins all other NATO discussions, apart from these. Another approach is to identify 2, 3, 4 issues whereby Russia fully participates in NATO’s work and then in all the others Russia will not participate. Now the first approach is more revolutionary than the second, but we are quite content with the second as well. The matters I have already mentioned are matters of common interest and nobody argues with that, but generally and gradually as we work together, as we trust each other more and more, this list of questions and issues to be tackled jointly will probably widen. Russia does not claim or ask for the right to work with NATO on a full range of issues, it is not claiming or asking for the right to take decisions on Article 5 issues and it has absolutely no claims on defence policy, but there are areas of interaction whereby we can work jointly and we can act efficiently and effectively if we join our efforts. We have already mentioned it and Russia is satisfied with this approach.
Question
Prime Minister, how surprised have you been by the extent of Russian co-operation in the wake of 11 September?
Prime Minister:
Perhaps I have been less surprised than others because I have had the opportunity to establish a relationship with President Putin over a period of time and I have seen him develop a very clear vision and strategy for Russia. But I do think that the part that Russia has played in the international community since 11 September has been remarkable. We have co-operation today in the international coalition against terrorism, we have co-operation at an intelligence level, we have a co-operation in terms of the way our people work together, military, political, diplomatic, that would have been really unthinkable just a short time ago. And yet I am convinced this is the right thing to do. The truth is Russia is a country that has undergone enormous change in the past few years, 11 September has brought home to all of us the common interest in fighting this evil of international terrorism. People sometimes forget that there were hundreds of people killed in Moscow in terrorist acts before 11 September a couple of years ago. This is not something new for any of us. And to me the big change that has happened in the world is that with the end of the Cold War and the unification of Europe taking place now, we have a completely common interest in economic prosperity and international security and to make sure that change where it happens in an orderly way, not with chaos. The important thing about political leadership in this situation is to recognise that the world has changed and act accordingly. And so I am not minimising the fact that there will be all sorts of different and difficult issues upon which different positions may be taken, often for historical reasons frankly, but what I would call the big picture in international politics is now very clear and the closer that America, and Europe and Russia, and indeed our other major partners, are working closely together, the better for all of us because we share in fact in the end common interests and common goals.
President Putin
You know I would add a few words, the question wasn’t addressed to me, nevertheless I just wanted to thank the Prime Minister for recalling and remembering the victims of terrorism in Moscow and in other Russian cities. Believe me, it is very important for us that you know and remember that this happened to us. On the whole it was just as important for us that the Prime Minister took his initial initiative and established his first contacts with the Russian leadership, with myself personally, we felt and we saw and we knew that our voice was being heard, that the UK wanted to hear us and to understand us and that indeed we were being understood and this was a very good basis upon which together we managed to work jointly and quite effectively to neutralise international terrorism in this instance in Afghanistan.
Question
My question is to both of you, to the Prime Minister and to the President. Mr Prime Minister, you have taken upon yourself leadership functions, you have sent troops to Afghanistan. What is the remit of your troops, how long will they stay there, what tasks are they going to tackle? And after that, could the President please comment.
Prime Minister:
Well the troops will be going there as part of the International Security Force that is now mandated by the United Nations and was asked for by the provisional government and the purpose will be in Kabul and the surrounding areas to provide the security that the new provisional government requires in order to enable them to fulfil their function. As we have made clear, we don’t anticipate staying there more than a few months, but I think most people recognise that as Afghanistan enters a new phase of its development, such security forces as are necessary at least to help the provisional government through its initial stages, and I would very much thank again not just those countries that have contributed, or will be contributing, also to that force, but also say that we have agreed ourselves, myself and the Russian President, to keep in close touch at a political level in respect of the force and how it operates. And I think that when tomorrow the new provisional government is actually inaugurated it will be a very healthy sign that a new future is indeed opening up for Afghanistan and I think it is important, as we said throughout the conflict, that we do not walk away from Afghanistan but give it that commitment to help it find that better future.
President Putin
The international force in Afghanistan is acting on the basis of a UN resolution, it has already been mentioned here, and you are aware of the fact that Russia was very active in preparing this UN decision. When working on the final text, we consulted quite actively and vigorously with members of the provisional administration or government in Afghanistan and in the final analysis one can say that there is a solution, it has been found and it is acceptable for everybody, that is the first thing I wanted to say. And the second thing, which is no less important, deals directly with Russia’s interest and Russia’s interest is to have in Afghanistan a neutral and a friendly country near our southern border which will never again allow on its territory terrorist bases for training terrorists and for sending them to Russian Caucasian territories, northern Caucasus. Therefore international troops for keeping law and order, for helping legal government in Afghanistan is fully in line with Russia’s interest.
INTERVIEWER
Prime Minister, did you raise the question of Chechnya? If not, why not? And do you share the assertion that the problems of Chechnya is simply one of terrorism?
Prime Minister:
First of all, yes, we did discuss that issue. The President was able to tell me of the political initiatives that are being taken there, but it is important to remember that whatever cause people have, terrorism is not the way to pursue it. And I made mention a moment or two ago of the people that died in their hundreds from terrorist acts inside Russia and I think it is important therefore to have some understanding of that position, and I know that this is something that has been raised with me at press conferences many times over the past couple of years and I have always said that whilst we want to see political progress made, of course we do, and that is recognised indeed by Russia itself. We condemn wholeheartedly any acts of terrorism carried out.
President Putin
If you would like to hear my position then I will repeat it because very recently I already stated my position in the interview I gave to the British media. Things are not as simple as they seem and we are not going to pretend that we are dealing with just terrorists in Chechnya, although a significant part of the problem is created by international terrorists. It is a fact, it is a commonly accepted fact which is not doubted, paramilitary activity is financed by international terrorism and their sponsors. A large number of mercenaries, primarily from Arab countries, are still fighting in the territory of Chechnya, are still fighting. But of course amongst those who did not lay down arms, who cannot be classed as terrorists, they are mainly motivated by separatism issues, but today these things are so closely intertwined and in practice it is very difficult to separate the two phenomena. As to the second part of the problem, the problem of separatism, then everybody is well aware of the fact that this is a problem that other countries are faced with, not just Russia, many other countries and European countries as well are faced with this problem, we are not supporting terrorism, separatism, in other countries and we hope that nobody will support our separatists, this would be a grave mistake for Europe because were this to happen Europe would plunge itself into an endless number of ethnic, national and religious conflicts. At the same time that doesn’t mean that everybody could do what they like, especially when human rights are concerned, as far as the humanitarian side of the issue is concerned and human rights here, I want to stress again that we are ready and willing for close co-operation with international organisations. I have told the Prime Minister about our plans to use all possible political means to tackle the problem.
Question
If I may, a question to the Prime Minister. Sir, a lot of praise and good and nice flattering words have been said about Russia and the west recently, and at the same time there are no realistic decisions and measures taken to integrate Russia into Europe, we have talked a lot about WTO but it is still conversation and still words, how you could comment on this situation?
Prime Minister:
First of all, I think there are two very important initiatives that are taking place. One is the proposals that we have made on the new relationship between NATO and Russia which have moved way beyond the idea of mere words, there are concrete proposals on the table that will come finally to fruition next year, that is a huge step forward. Secondly, we have made progress on Russian membership of the WTO but not enough, not nearly enough, which is why myself and other European leaders are trying to help move this situation forward as soon as we possibly can. And I would say the third thing is this, you know earlier we were meeting business leaders from Britain who want to invest in Russia. I think the whole perception of Russia in Europe and in the west has been transformed. People believe that Russia has a clear direction today, they believe that the economic reforms that have been introduced by the President are working, they are anxious now to invest and I can tell you the biggest vote of confidence that you can ever get from any country is when its business people want to go and put their money there. And so I think that yes of course these things take time to achieve, but I think we are on a completely different path now in relations between Russia and Europe, and indeed America too, and I think that is right, it is a very exciting time for all of us and I hope very much that it is strongly supported by British people here and by Russian people in the Russian Federation.
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