We do indeed have very good relations and understand each other well. This is important for reaching agreement on many different issues, and we are never short of topics to address. We started with our bilateral relations. We have made serious progress of late on the subject of Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organisation. I think that credit here goes to the President of the United States’ team, which has implemented all of the agreements reached during my visit to Washington. I hope that this process will continue and that Russia will join the WTO soon. Regarding other topics, we reviewed regional issues of course, and international issues. One of the main subjects we spoke about was the meeting that will take place in Lisbon soon, where the upcoming NATO-Russia summit is to be held. We see an improvement in relations between Russia and NATO, and this is useful for all sides. We are engaged in discussion on a number of matters now, including the idea of a European ABM system. We exchanged views on what steps we think could be taken in this area, and agreed to instruct our aides and ministers to continue advancing in this direction. This is an issue that we will discuss at the summit itself too  read more...

 We talked about cooperation between Russia and NATO. That was an important discussion, informative and useful. I would like to announce that I will take part in the Russia-NATO summit, which will be held on November 20 in Lisbon. I believe it will help us find the right compromises and in general to deepen the dialogue between the Russian Federation and the North Atlantic Alliance. We reviewed the Partnership for Modernisation, we talked about visa-free travel and the whole range of Russia-EU issues because France and Germany are our major EU partners, and it is very important for us to coordinate efforts with these states. In general, I would like to note that this format is very useful. I repeat, it allows us to discuss various issues in an open and friendly atmosphere and, most importantly, to find the answers we need. So I hope that we will continue to communicate in this format in the future  read more...

In his speech, Dmitry Medvedev stated that relations with Europe are one of the most important vectors in Russia’s foreign policy and emphasised that today, Europe needs to follow a unified European agenda. Other topics of discussion included current issues concerning European security architecture, taking into account the outcomes of the Russian-French-German summit in Deauville, as well as agendas at the upcoming NATO summit in Lisbon and OSCE summit in Astana. Furthermore, the discussion addressed various issues concerning multilateral cooperation, such as strengthening control over weapons, the problems of disarmament and non-proliferation, and the effects of the global financial and economic crisis on international stability and security  read more...