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Medvedev to have bilateral meetings within APEC summit – adviser

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will have at least seven bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Honolulu on November 11-13

MOSCOW, November 9 (Itar-Tass) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will have at least seven bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Honolulu on November 11-13, presidential adviser Arkady Dvorkovich said on Wednesday.

Dvorkovich said first of all, President Medvedev would meet with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama. The presidential adviser said the meeting would be long by time and focus on many issues.

According to Dvorkovich, the agenda of other meetings is being finalised. The Russian leader will have talks with the Japanese prime minister and the Chinese chairman on the sidelines of the summit, the presidential adviser said.

He also said participants in the APEC summit would hold informal talks in houses of Hawaii residents.

Dvorkovich, who is preparing the agenda of President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Honolulu, said local residents would be able to meet with the leaders of companies of different APEC countries.

Speaking at a press briefing, the presidential adviser said, “Several sessions will take place within the APEC summit with the participation of the leaders.”

Dvorkovich said the Russian and US presidents, Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama, would discuss in Honolulu US anti ballistic missile defence, European security, the situation in the Middle East and in North Africa.

“The agenda will be traditional, but we see progress even if slow sometimes on all directions,” Dvorkovich stated. “Medvedev and Obama will discuss issues that concern regional aspects, global threats as well as the security system, in particular anti missile defence,” he said.

“Obviously this issue (building elements of US ABM system in Europe) will be considered during the negotiations,” the Kremlin aide said. According to him, “the situation in the Middle East and in North Africa are the most topical issues at the moment, and they will also be discussed,” he added.

He is confident that this year “the Russia-US reset process does not end: reset was launched on the top political level, but not in the minds of all interested persons and players”.

“We expect that we will manage to advance on all those issues within the next few months, and by no means will roll back,” Dvorkovich stressed.