Obama and Russia's Medvedev Meet to Discuss Economics, Trade
Washington - President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will hold a one-day summit June 24 where the focus will be on economic relations and international trade.
"We believe that this visit takes place at a new phase in U.S.-Russia relations," said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications. "We believe it comes after a period when we've made very substantial progress in resetting the U.S.-Russia relationship and making concrete progress on a number of very important and substantive areas," Rhodes added during a June 22 press briefing in Washington.
"We're trying to use this visit in particular to spur people-to-people exchanges, business ties, increased investment in the Russian economy in a way that will be mutually beneficial," Rhodes said.
It will mark the seventh meeting between Obama and Medvedev in the 17 months since Obama took office.
Medvedev began his trip to the United States June 22 with a stop in California's highly regarded Silicon Valley technology hub for talks with executives at Google, Twitter, Apple and Cisco Systems and leaders at Stanford University, where he was scheduled to give a speech June 23. Part of the trip will address the need to move Russia's oil-driven manufacturing economy into high-technology and innovation industries such as those found in Silicon Valley. The state of California is also seeking to develop trade and investment missions with the Russian government.
"There will be a serious program tomorrow: I will inspect the hi-tech companies in Silicon Valley," Medvedev said at a dinner June 22 in San Francisco with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to news reports. "This is very useful for us, given our plans for a similar center near Moscow."
Supporting greater growth in the Russian economy, Rhodes said, is viewed by Washington as an underdeveloped part of the U.S.-Russian relationship. "We very deliberately wanted to broaden the agenda to these economic issues because we believe that there's growth potential here," Rhodes added.
International trade, investment and innovation are expected to be key issues included in their talks. Russia has been seeking membership in the 153-nation World Trade Organization for 17 years. It is already a member of both the Group of Eight (G8) and the Group of 20 (G20) major world economies.
Total trade between the United States and Russia - exports and imports - in 2009 was $23.53 billion, down sharply from $36.12 billion in 2008, largely because of the global economic recession. For the first four months of this year trade totaled $8.5 billion. But that trade total is less than the trade between the United States and trading partners like Brazil or South Korea and well below $366 billion in trade with China in 2009, according to the U.S. Commerce Department's Census Bureau.
"President Obama looks forward to using this next meeting with President Medvedev to explore possible avenues of greater cooperation regarding trade, investment and innovation," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says ( http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2010/June/20100611162555ptellivremos0.1076624.html ). "In conjunction with the visit, Russian and American business leaders, as well as American and Russian civil society leaders, will be holding their own meetings in Washington."
Both presidents will also attend an event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is across from the White House, to meet with leading American corporations and business executives. Russia, for its part, will have to address its approach to doing business with foreign investors and its rule-of-law system, which underpins much of the global trading network.
"President Medvedev has been outspoken in certain instances about some of the reforms that need to be taken within Russia to strengthen the rule of law as it relates to business and civil society," Rhodes said.
After their meeting June 24 in Washington, both presidents will travel to Canada for the G8 and G20 summits, which run June 25-27, White House officials said.
White House officials said Obama and Medvedev also will discuss security issues that include the spread of nuclear weapons in Iran and North Korea, counterterrorism, counternarcotics, energy efficiency and climate change, emergency disaster response, outer space and the eventual ratification of the New START Treaty ( http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2010/June/20100617120432dmslahrellek0.5792963.html ) between the United States and Russia to reduce nuclear arms.
