Brookings Institution
Washington, D.C.
April 18, 2010
Before I make a few opening remarks, I first of all want to thank you for this invitation to speak at one of America's leading think tanks. It is deservedly seen as a stronghold of liberal thinking, and I know that it is also reputed as a place that has produced many members of the US political elite. Now, this is high time that I quote Robert Brookings, who once said that the activity of the institution he had established was based upon the belief that there is a necessity to do precise and impartial identification of matters in the study and presenting ideas without any kind of ideology. This institute has worked on these principles right from the start, and this has undoubtedly helped it to find solutions to some of the most complex issues in domestic and global affairs.
The world is living through a time of deep-reaching transformation today, faces big challenges, and is searching for new development models. To be honest, the same could be said of any period in humanity's development. We consider it very important, of course, to build a world of common and complementary interests and interdependent approaches. The world will be a more harmonious place if, instead of confronting each other, its different parts learn how to complement each other and build a foundation for common development.
Democracy, human rights and the market economy form the basis not only of national development today but also represent a common set of international values. The dialogue between Russia and the United States is an important part of these values. I am truly happy to see that our cooperation is now producing concrete results. I would go further and say that I am happy that over this last year and a bit we have succeeded in changing the climate in Russian-American relations. This does not mean that there are no longer any problems in our relations and that these relations are absolutely perfect, but the climate has improved and we are seeing the results now. It makes me very happy indeed to be a part of this change.
Our meeting follows straight on from the [Nuclear Security] Summit that has just ended. I want to say that this summit was a success in every way. I cannot recall another conflicts-free summit, a summit at which the participants showed such a unanimous assessment of the current situation. What we were dealing with was not the economy or ways to exit the global crisis, but something that is a real threat and real challenge to each of the countries taking part.
Last week, President Obama and I signed the new START Treaty, and it seems fitting to mention this again now, all the more so here in Washington. This is a real step forward, no matter what the analysts say with regard to the results obtained, whose side the balance is on, or whether this is a real achievement or just good publicity for two politicians. In my view, this treaty is a positive thing.
Russian-American relations have a complex history. As is often the case, we have many extremes in our relations, with everything from the tightest of embraces to outright hostility, but instead of focusing on the differences between us we should build long-term pragmatic relations - and I stress this word, pragmatic - for the future. We need to give these relations a common base, of course - the values of democracy and economic freedom, and our common goals in the fight against global threats.
Our countries have different histories and our peoples often differ in their interpretation of events. The USA has been developing a market economy for almost two centuries now, while our country, in the twentieth century at least, went through a series of severe trials, economic upheavals and experiments. I therefore believe very strongly that Russia now requires several decades of calm and stable effort to build an effective political and economic system. Only then will the differences that exist, even at the level of our mentalities, become a thing of the past. Only for this to happen, we must not lecture each other on how to live, but need simply to keep talking to each other, maintain regular, direct contact, and not try to paint the situation in this or that tone of our own.
No one is more aware of our country's problems than we ourselves. They include corruption, technological backwardness, and an unhealthy way of life. But we only began changing our social system 20 years ago, and I want to stress to you that this system is deeply rooted in traditions that cannot be changed overnight. This system was shaped by traditions reaching back centuries. These traditions have become firmly entrenched in habit, and they are often a hindrance to our progress, but at the same time, they are also a kind of self-defence mechanism that society uses to hold itself together. We understand how we can go about addressing these problems, including by drawing on our friends' experience. We need to build up a partnership on the whole range of different issues. And we in turn are willing, of course, to give the United States a shoulder to lean on where necessary - and this support is indeed necessary on a whole number of issues.
All countries make declarations about democratic principles, what matters however, is not the declarations, and not even changes to the law, though improving legislation is one of the tasks on our agenda today, but what really matters above all is real implementation of democracy, real democratic practice. Practice, as we know, is a criterion for truth in general, and political and legal practice show up all the merits and shortcomings. It is important to keep this in mind, to focus on practice, and then we will see progress in fighting corruption, will be able to remove from office individuals who prove themselves unfit for their jobs, and most importantly, may possibly ensure the proper feedback between the authorities and the general public. I think that all state officials, regardless of their position, from the President right down to municipal heads, should make this feedback a priority, and make use of modern technology in this work. I personally try to do this, and I think that others should make this a part of their work too. We have a huge variety of tools today at our disposal in this work. Sometimes it seems to me that, in the past, heads of state and government were often hostage to their aides, who sorted the documents and decided which files would end up on the desk. They were the ones who decided what the leadership did or did not see. We all know that aides are human too, and of course they wanted to put the best light on things, show up their own work in a favourable light. But everything has changed today. No matter what people write to me, or to President Obama, we can always switch on the computer, go on the internet and see what is actually going on. This is not to say that the internet always tells the truth while aides always lie, but at least the internet provides another source of information, circumventing the aides and taking us straight to the heart of the information environment. I think this is something very important, and we have yet to realise its full impact.
Colleagues, we will work with the United States on all of the big global problems such as preventing terrorism and drugs trafficking, trans-border crime and piracy. We work together on settling regional conflicts and we are trying - without much success so far, it is true - to fight climate change. We place particular emphasis on enhancing multilateral mechanisms for regulating international relations, and above all the United Nations, the organisation that serves as the foundation for these relations and that is the only truly universal forum that we have. We also have the Group of Eight and the Group of Twenty, of course, and we will continue working through them too. Naturally, we will continue working on overcoming the global economic crisis, because it is not yet clear how the future will shape up. I think the situation is not entirely clear here yet, and the same is true of elsewhere around the world. There are various scenarios, and so we will soon continue examining this subject together at the G8 summit in Canada, and in the G20.
We are working on regional issues, regional security. I draw the attention of everyone present to one of the initiatives I put forward shortly after being elected president, namely, the European Security Treaty. I make separate mention of this point because I want to stress that this treaty is not directed against any organisation and has no hidden agenda, is not some kind of cunning Russian trick to weaken NATO or the OSCE. We are simply seeking to add to Europe's security system a more effective legal instrument.
The Iranian nuclear programme is another of the subjects we discuss often, and I imagine you will probably ask about it too. There is talk now of imposing sanctions on Iran, and the reasons for this are eminently clear. Iran has not responded to the compromise offers that have been made. We discuss these issues and these sanctions together in the six party talks. I last discussed this problem with President Obama in Prague, when we met to sign the START Treaty (Joint Understanding of Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms). This is not to say that sanctions are a particularly useful thing. What's more, they do not always achieve the desired results and end up punishing the ordinary people which should not be accepted. Sanctions would need to guarantee the nuclear non-proliferation regime, and only then could they be considered effective.
We are jointly helping the people of Afghanistan to transform their country into a stable and sustainably developing state and ensure peaceful life there. We are working together on the political front, on political settlement, strengthening the government of Afghanistan, helping the police force, cooperating on transit traffic. I think that all of this is contributing towards our common objectives. True, too little has been done so far to fight the drugs trafficking coming from Afghanistan. Perhaps this is because America itself is much less directly affected by this drugs trafficking, unlike Europe and the Russian Federation. This flow of drugs is coming straight into our country, and so whatever the case, we need to make progress in this area.
We share similar positions on Middle East peace settlement. We need to establish real conditions for the formation of an independent Palestinian state. This has proved a very difficult process so far. But until this happens it will be impossible to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East. America is now making efforts to put the process back on a constructive track, including through carrying out indirect negotiations. We give these efforts our full support too. This year, I have met with practically all of the Middle East leaders and have consistently expressed my support for these indirect negotiations. A quartet meeting took place in Moscow not so long ago, and I hope that ultimately, all of these efforts will transform into direct negotiations.
Any halt in development always results in ground being lost, and this is why Russia has launched the drive today to close this gap by modernising our economy, upgrading our technology and introducing new technology. To be frank, we still have a very long way to go in this work, and I say quite up front that we really count on working in partnership with the world's leading economies, including the American economy, of course. I was especially happy that my last conversation with President Obama began not with the Iranian situation or the Middle East, and not even with the START Treaty, but with the question of economic cooperation between our two countries. I really feel that this is the area of our relations in which we have the most work to do. We have put dynamism back into our relations, have revived normal contacts and put things on a constructive track once again. President Obama and I have established friendly ties, but we have yet to see the economic results. I want to say once more that I think it would be good to see some results in this area. Of course, I realise that business is business, and that it functions according to its own needs and laws. I realise that there is no forcing it into anything, but we can certainly establish the conditions for its development.
I quoted Robert Brookings, the founder of this institution. It would not be right for me not to quote too within these walls today the current President of the United States of America. Speaking in Russia last year, he said that America needs a strong, peaceful and prosperous Russia. These are fine words, but Russia in turn needs a responsible, peaceful, influential and dynamically developing America, an America that has the respect of the entire international community and that builds relations with other countries on an equal basis, and on this same basis builds its position on development and the new system of international relations. This would indeed be an excellent thing.
I will conclude with these words. We can move on now to the more interesting part of this time together - our direct discussion. But first of all, I think that Mr Talbott wants to say a few words and ask me some questions, and so I will remain here for now, if you have no objection.