eclassiiied Ci i se l'JW# 781 34 Date 8-25-2025 8405 CCM P H'J M'T IA L THE WHITE HOUSE WP SHINGTON · MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION SUBJECT Telcon with President Putin of Russia ·PARTICIPANTS U - The President President Putin Interpreter Peter Afanasenko _Notetakers Tom Hall Andy Green_ Stacey Mulligan DATE · TIME November 8 2001 7 44 - 7 59 a m EST Oval Office · AND LACE Th Presiden t President Putin The President Good orning U Good morning Mr President Hey Vladimir how are you U U President Putin Excellent I decid d to cail you just to ta l k about the key issues · we are going to talk about in Washington The Presidenti Oh good Thank you for calling I'm confident we're going to have a good trip I'm looking forward to i t U President Putin It seems to be a more optimistic time than when we met in Shanghai We had a chince to talk with your Defense Minister Rumsfeld And if I heard him correctly it s ounds like things will be finaliz ed with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mi Igor Ivanov Now the main thing is not to have anything added It seems to me that we have options on all issues we have talk d about till now including the ABM Tre ty I hope·th t you and I will discuss these things when we meet personally We have informat ion from your experts about your plans for missile defense testing I thi nk the existing ABM Treaty should take into account needed flexibility In a year or two taking that emiFIDmJ'rIAL Classified by · _Stephen E Biegun Reason l 5 d Declass if y on 11 8 11 NW# 78134 Docid 34685236 Z9BCR84' 2 flexibility into account I think we can finish I t would be good if we couJ d say something specific at the completion of our meeting on we poris and· on·our cooperation on counLer-cerrorism I see there are new people corning from you and the special services for in te llig e nce sharing Weapons ·for t e Northern Alliance are decided · The timing· of some of this is of some concern for the Tajiks lso it has b en confirmed by the Northern Alliance that your l test air raids have be n very successful We are pushing the ·Northern Allia·n ce to increase their ooperation in operational -planning and to 1 eg in actual operations I would be ·very happy to have some discussions with you when we meet The President Ye s Vladimir The First Lady and I are looking forward to seeing you in Texas I hope it' Okay if I can take you to a small high school in my hometown in Texas I want people·to see that you are a modern thinker and I want you to see Americans t President Putin Okay U The President Okay good Secoridly I hav one concern First before I express that I'm confident we can m ke progr ss on economic issues I know I am making g rea t progress on Jackson-Vanik i n Congress We will talk about offensive weapons I am prepared to discuss numbers with you when you come I think one important sub ject that I want the world to know about is the new relationship between Russ ian and NATO The o pe ·area of· concern I have is our talks on strategic d fenses Rega rdless of· whether we agree o r not on the ability to test ·freely I will never do anythtng to put you in an -awkward p osition here in Ameri ca rs _i We have ·two options On the one hand you and I can agree ihat America can te st fr eely and without any restr ictions and we will share information with you And in return for the f reedom to test we will agree to stay within the ABM Treat with you for a period of time If on the other hand it' s- impossible fo r you for whatever reason to _ allow us to test freely my only option will be to withdraw from the ABM Treaty at a l ater date · so we can begin testing after a six- month period and we will continue t o work to see if we can't reach an agreement But I promise you that I will not embarrass you I will not put you 'in an· awkward position s h ould we not be able to reach an accord on testing We can say in Washington and Cra wford we are continuing t o work to make sure that each party's concerns are repre sented 'SJ tJBCRB f NW# 78 1 34 Do c i d 3468 5 236 3 I hope you will think through these two -op tions I will tell Colin Powell talk this through with Igor and we will continue to talk through this I think· this is a great opportunity for us It gives us a ch nce to continue to test and ext nd the treaty I think we can discuss this if you like when you come Nevertheless I think we will have a great visit I can't wait to see you to President Putin George we shall see I'll think about it I thought I would like to repeat tha t I have optimism with regard ·to all issues incl uding ABM And maybe it may seem at first glance t hat nothing is changing in our position but there are nuances that I would lik_e to discuss with you personal ly when I come _to Washington We have several options All of the are good I wish all the best to you and I look forward to seeing you in Washington and Texas S The President Vladimir when you come to Texas make sure you bring casual clothes It will very informal And also bring walking shoes exercise shoes so we can go for lon walks on the ranch U be President utin Okay thank you The President President Putin- Thank you Good -bye Good-bye U U U End of Conversation I SECRB'F NW# _ 7 8134 DOcid · 34685236