4645 ecla ssifiecl Case -JW# 78134 Oe te 8-25-2025 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATIOij SUBJECT Telcon with tqe President of Russia PARTICiPANTS The President Presidei it ·Putin ' Interpreter U · Peter Afanasenko Notetakers Don Gentile Bob Schubert Jill Sandler Joel Ehrendreich DATE TIME Jury 6 ·2001 10 58 - 11 07 a m EDT Kennebunkport Maine AND PLACE The Preside nt Yes U President Putin r President I wou d like to greet you but I don't know what time it is U The President It is 11 00 in the morning U President Putin I would like t o congratulate you on your birthday Mr President U The President Thank you thank you U President Putin And I would also like to wish _you all the personal well-being and success for the benefit of your country I would also lik to congratulate you on Independence Day I'm still recalling our meeting in Ljubljana I must say that I was quite satisfied and this event was met very -positively by the general public in Russia Now we are awaiting the delegation of your Secretar ies of Commerce and Finance here and also Dr Rice very much I t hink that during their v·isit here we wil l develop all of the p o sitive steps which we re made during our meeting in Ljubljana I have already made a deci s ion on constituting two @OHPIDOU'PD L Classif ied by Stephen E Biegun Reason 1 S d Decla sify on 07 06 11 NW# 78134 Doc rd 34685232 2 groups as we agreed from the foreign ministry and defense ministry to continue our talks on the basis of strategic stability arrangements Also I await with impatience the possibility of meeting you in Genoa and think this will be another good opportunity Mr President this is all I wanted to say I don't want to take too much of your time This was just a call to congratulate you on your birthday 't'S l The President Mr President first of all from now on you should call me George even though I'm one-day-older George Secondly I'm so honored to take your phone call thank you And thank you for your note on our Independence Day I too felt our meeting was an excellent meeting And many in my country were pleased to see two new leaders so willing to seek new ground And I think many nervous people in Europe · took a deep sigh of relief when they saw that you and i had established a warm relationship · Secondly I do want to express my nation's and my personal condolences for the lives that ·were lost in Siberia My thoughts are with the families of the victims I told Evans ahd O'Neill and Condi Rice that they must work hard to build on the level of respect that we started There's so much we can do when we work together I do think we need to work harder on Iraq I was disappointed we weren't able to reach an accord and I hope Secretary Powell and Foreign Minister Ivanov can continue to discuss this If we work together e can find a smart sanctions plan that will benefit the people of Iraq and also make sure commercial interests in Russia are not disrupted And finally it seems I hope that · the cease-fire holds in the Balkans I know you're very interested 'in that area And Macedonia this is another area where Ivanov and Secretary Powell need to continue a dialog I'm really looking forwai -d to o ur meeting in Italy I know we can advance and continue to make history And so I want to thank you again for your kind phone call on my birthday I'm with my family and I'm looking forward to telling them that you were the first world leader to call me on rn birthda 6 So thank you for ca b 6 1ng my friend President Putin Thank you so much George And all the best to you and your family I will see you in Italy U The Pres'ident President Putin The President Yes sir Your English is getting very good Thank you Go o dbye Thanks and goodbye U U End of Conversation CONPID JN'i'IAL NW# 78134 Docid 34685232 U