THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
____________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release May 7, 2009
Oval Office
4:40 P.M. EDT
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I just want to make a brief statement. I just had an
excellent conversation with Minister Lavrov. He and Secretary Clinton
and the rest of our foreign policy teams have been meeting throughout
the day. This caps off many of these conversations, all in preparation
for a visit that President Medvedev and I have discussed to take place
sometime this summer.
As I've said before, I think we have an excellent opportunity to reset
the relationship between the United States and Russia on a whole host
of issues, from nuclear weapons and nuclear proliferation, the
situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, how we approach Iran, how we
approach the Middle East, commercial ties between the two countries,
and how we address the financial crisis that has put such a strain on
the economies of all countries around the world.
And President Medvedev has an excellent representative in Minister
Lavrov. We very much appreciate his strong work in trying to move the
relationship forward, and I am hopeful that the meetings that we've had
so far and the meetings that we expect to have throughout the course of
this year will be of mutual benefit to both countries.
So thank you very much for taking the time.
FOREIGN MINISTER LAVROV: Thank you, Mr. President. And I just would
like briefly to relate that we indeed working very hard developing the
documents which you and President Medvedev authorized us to do when you
met in London. I think we work in a very pragmatic, businesslike way
on the basis of the common interest whenever our positions coincide,
and on the basis of respect to each other whenever we have
disagreements, trying to narrow the disagreements for the benefit of
our countries and the international stability.
And I can convey to you once again that President Medvedev is really looking forward to meeting you in Moscow in July.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you, everybody.
END
4:44 P.M. EDT
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