ecle ssified Case NW# 78134 D i te CONFIBBiTH L 8-25-2025 2 68 5 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON I • MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION SUBJECT Telcon with President of Russia PARTICIPANTS The President Pres ident Putin Notetakers Jeff Houle DATE TIME ·AND PLACE The President President Putin Don Gentile Jill Saridler April 2 2002 10 15-1 0 31 a m EST Oval Office Good morning _Vladimir • In English Go6d morning George he President • How are you sir President Putin U U U In English Very good how are you U ' The President I'm great r m a li tle orried about tbe Middl East but pleased and thankful for your hard work on the chic kens Thank you sir · President Putin A e you in Crawford or in Washington The President · I'm in Washington President· Putin The President Actually Thank you I U U hope you have had good r est U U President Putin I have two i ssues to discuss The firsi relates to what we discussed in the conversation of Margh 27 ind the official message of March 29 and all things about U S poultry And as we agreed the urgent steps were taken to resolve the issue as soon as possible· Actually your experts did a very good job And as a result · this joint protocol was signed to remove ·any problems And now it's very important that the U S would act as soon as possible to implement the steps The protocol c eates · a good basis to resolve the problem in the near future And I paid special attention to your proposa l your idea to establish a permanent joint commission on the issues ceNPID JU'fL'Ms Classifi d by Steph n E Biegun Reason 1 5 d Declassify on 4 3 12 NW# 78134 Docid 34685241 COfJr'IB W' ' Ittt 2 for fbodstuff safeti I do believe it's a very good proposal and we are considering it and I will inform you of our decision · Very soon And actually I do believe that our agreement will reduce the tension of this situation and contribute to resolving problems in the economic sp ere including abolition of the Jackson-Yanik amendment And also very active work is being done and progress is being made on further reductions of offensive weapons and the declaration on the new strategic relations We have already submitted our additional proposals in this rega rd and are waiting for these to be discussed at the meetings with Ivanov and Powell on April 10 and 11 N J Now the main thing actually ·this is exactly what I want ed t o talk to you about Maybe you kriow that Prime Minister· Berlusconi is now my guest· and just one minute ·ago I said Good-bye to him and he told me to give his best regards to you · 'ts The President C Thanks U President Putin And actually we have a proposal It is about the preparation and signature and launch of Russia-NATO at-20 And if everything is okay if God favors us you will be here in Moscow 23-25 May And as far as I know you have plans to visit European countries to visit Chirac · Germany perhaps Buti you know anyway if you could stay one more day in Europe we could m·e et in Rome· in order to organize the Russian-NATO summit and launch these mechanisms And actually it would be good for me if we resolved it before the NATO summit in Prague This would reduce the tens ion and press re in my country so it would be very· ·good to do before· the Prague summit And actually my · impression •is that this would be good for r Berlusconi because he is in a difficult political situation under great pr ssure from his left good to shift the internal political tension to other affairs and show the impo tan e of Italy in the International arena I don't know actually it's up tQ you I would think this would be acceptable to you In any way you know better but such a step of la nching oi · this 20 mechanism would be very good a logical result and a n ice finish to your Eut6pean tour and this would be a very good stop for your European tour Actually what do you think o this · ts · Th Presid nti Let me give it some thought Vladi ir I'm very much in favor of at - 20 to satisfy some of your concerns Jl nd I'm glad we're making progress in this So I'll take a·good look at it and ge back with you Secondly I want to thank you again for your work on the poultry issue We made excellent progress where your leadership made a difference This is a good model on how we can solve economic issues and we will move quickly on the - implementation of the protocol Fi nally I am very pleased we are making progress on strategic relations According to what GONFIDEU'PIAL NW# 78134 Docid 34685241 3 CONFIDCWi' At Colin Powell has tbld me we hav a document that ii bracketed and we just have to work out the language and that is very positive I think we're going to have an historic meeting and I look forward to t I was talking to Condi about the d tails It is going to be an exciting trip for Laura and me and I can't wait to see you there President Putiri George you know that I will be waiting for you and we'll go on with preparing your visit And please think it over and I don't need any immediate response from you The President Okay u · President Putin And as far as I know that regarding these basic documents for Russia-NATO they are nearly ready The basic points are agreed and the next step is the politic al consent but anyway we want to make your visit historic and do it as well as possible And qf course we are also worried about' what is going on in the Middle East and pay 16ts of attention · to it Unfortunately this situation isn't developing favorably for Sharon A lot of negative things are happening ·For example one of the European priests became a victim It's very·sad They seized an Orthodox church in Jerusalem And I am familiar with your statement on th is ue of Araiat e share your approach - and I believe you feel that we will continue work ng · within the framework of the four Russia U S UN and EU And maybe we should give instructions to the Russian Foreign Office and Department of State to ma e a Russian-u s statement to Arafat and Israel and if you think it advisable we could charge our foreign offices· with it Actu lly that's all I wanted to tell you Thank you The President Thanks I too am worried about the· Middle · East But I am· getting criticized by people here who think I · somehow haven't solved the problem And I'll pass your ideas to Colin Poweli about a joint statement or joint dem rche I want to thank you for your interest and concern on this issue and your support for finding a peaceful solution Please give my best to your family · - President Putin and your family The President President Putin In English Thank you Okay talk to you soon U · In English Bye bye End of Conversation · GONFI ti ii HTI ' L NW# 78134 All the best for you U Docid 34685241 U