MOSCOW, March 23 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his US counterpart Barack Obama will meet in Seoul on Monday, March 26, Russian presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko has told Itar-Tass.
The two leaders will take part in a nuclear security summit. The rendezvous with Obama tops Medvedev’s agenda in Seoul.
“The visit to Seoul will begin with a bilateral working meeting with Obama. It is to last two hours,” Prikhodko said.
He recalled that of late the Russian and US presidents held three personal meetings, all of them on the sidelines of major multi-lateral events in Japan, France and the United States. It looks like this is going to be the last meeting of the two leaders, because Medvedev’s term of office will expire on May 7, 2008.
The nuclear security summit will be held in the South Korean capital on March 26-27.
“Under Russia’s new president the relations with the United States will certainly change for the better,” Prikhodko forecasts. “President-elect Vladimir Putin will certainly be acting in the interests of the state, and that implies the development of relations with the United States.”
The Russian presidential aide believes that “coordinated efforts, exerted over the past few years, noticeably improved the quality of Russian-US relations, the climate of the dialogue has got better and its scope expanded.”
Prikhodko believes that “this is largely a result of the creation in July 2009 of the bilateral presidential commission, which is to present another report about its activity to the heads of state at the forthcoming meeting.”
The Kremlin official said that currently the commission has twenty working groups for cooperation in nuclear power, agriculture, healthcare, space, and struggle with terrorism and illegal drug trafficking.
“Among other concrete results of the resetting of relations is the conclusion of another strategic offensive arms reduction treaty. The current one, which took effect a year ago, has noticeably improved international security. Also, there are plans for concluding an agreement on cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear power, which has widened the framework of cooperation between our scientists and energy producers,” Prikhodko said.
On Monday, Medvedev and Obama will discuss progress in the political dialogue and summarize some results of bilateral cooperation.