Putin heads to US for informal summit with Bush

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin is leaving on Sunday for the US for an informal summit with his American counterpart George W Bush with the aim to thrash out growing differences between the two countries over a whole range of issues, including European missile shield and alleged human rights violations in the former's country.

At their informal interaction at Bush family's oceanfront estate near Kennebunkport in Maine, the leaders are expected to vent at least some steam out in bilateral relations to create a conducive atmosphere for their successors when both Russia and the US are scheduled to pick their new presidents.

Kremlin believes that the talks would be complex as Bush and Putin are to discuss a "whole range of topical issues".

While at Kennebunkport, Putin and Bush will try to overcome differences that have sent the US-Russian ties to its lowest point since the break-up of the Soviet Union. The meeting may be the two leaders' last opportunity to reverse the decline before their presidential terms expire next year, Russian media reports said.

"Given that the presidents are in for a detailed conversation on a whole range of topical issues and an international agenda, the American side's choice of the venue seems ideal: the leaders' informal talks in an unofficial setting will create the right conditions for efficiency we are hoping for," Kremlin foreign affairs aide Sergei Prikhodko said.

Putin and Bush will use the informal summit to follow up on their discussions of a controversial US missile defence plan in Europe, Prikhodko said.

During his latest meeting with Bush on the sidelines of a G-8 summit in Germany, Putin proposed to share former Soviet early-warning radar at Qabala in Azerbaijan currently leased by Russia with the US as an alternative to deployment of European missile shield capable of crippling Moscow's punitive strike capability in case of first American nuclear strike.

Bush described the proposal as interesting and promised to consider it at length, but Defence Secretary Robert Gates later said the US was unlikely to use the Azerbaijani base as a substitute for its prospective missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic to protect its European allies against potential strikes by Iran and other "rogue" states.

"The fact that Bush has responded to the proposal positively and with interest gives hope for a finale that will enable our countries to counter actual missile threats without endangering each other," Prikhodko told reporters.

Nuclear arms control and cooperation in the nuclear industry will also be high on the summit agenda, he said.

One of the key issues at the informal summit would be a future arms control treaty to replace the Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START), expiring in December 2009.

"We expect the presidents to take up the topic, bearing in mind that in St Petersburg last year, they instructed experts to review the treaty and determine which of its provisions should be taken into a future agreement," Prikhodko was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

Less controversial issues, such as collaboration on civilian nuclear programs, are also likely to come under discussion, the Kremlin aide said.

Prikhodko said Moscow and Washington could consolidate their leadership in organising collective measures to promote civilian nuclear engineering for all interested states to benefit - provided their strict compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Cooperation in that area should be based on Russia's initiative to set up an international uranium enrichment centre in Siberia and on the US proposal to use civilian nuclear power as part of a Global Energy Partnership program, Prikhodko said.

"These initiatives are mutually complementary, and could together form an attractive alternative to states seeking to develop a nuclear industry without creating any proliferation risks," he underscored.

"These initiatives complement each other and can together provide a rather attractive alternative for other countries that seek to develop civil nuclear energy without creating proliferation risks," he said.

However, experts in Moscow do not expect any breakthrough in bilateral relations marred by other issues including Kosovo independence, alleged human rights violations in Russia and Kremlin backtracking on democracy.

"I do not expect any breakthroughs from this meeting.  Putin and Bush will communicate to cool down the heat of passions between our countries, which have surpassed all reasonable limits now, and to put relations between us onto a positive track," Vyacheslav Nikonov, the president of the Polity Foundation think tank was quoted as saying by Interfax.

Nikonov, grandson of Stalin's foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov noted a number of "fundamental disagreements" between Russia and the US now, including on how they position themselves in the world.

"The US is currently a revolutionary power, which is changing the world, leading two wars, transforming regimes, and spending 25 times as much as Russia on its military purposes.

Russia used to be revolutionary and is interested in a status quo now. We are not fighting with anybody and not changing regimes in other countries, and therefore it is quite difficult to reach an understanding given such different approaches," he said.