OREANDA-NEWS. March 27, 2012. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Good afternoon. The Seoul Nuclear Security Summit is about to end. All of you are familiar with its agenda.

On the eve of the summit, I held several important meetings: I met with President of the United States Barack Obama; I met with President of the Republic of Korea Lee Myung-bak, whom I told today that the summit’s organisation was excellent. Once again, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Korean partners for organising the event and for its content, because a great deal depends on the host country.

In addition, as is usually the case, several meetings were held on the summit’s sidelines. Apart from the leadership of the United States and the Republic of Korea, I also met with the King of Jordan, the Prime Minister of Turkey and the Prime Minister of Italy, and had brief exchanges with several other colleagues.

The Seoul Summit is the second after the summit in Washington. I can say that overall I am satisfied with its outcome, because the issues are very complicated, and we cannot expect to resolve all the problems in just a few meetings. However, we did not just exchange views; we found a number of specific solutions that will allow us to build more effective cooperation in the field of nuclear security.

In addition, today we made an extremely useful joint statement with the President of Kazakhstan and President of the United States on the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. This is a truly positive example of trilateral cooperation that encapsulates the idea of the summit and its agenda.

Despite the tragedy at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in Japan, most countries today come to the conclusion that the use of nuclear technology and materials is inevitable; they need to be improved but there can be no progress for the humanity without using them. This technology is in great demand in a wide range of areas. Naturally, we must ensure the physical and technological security of nuclear facilities, which we have been discussing over these past two days, including their security on a global scale.

I would like to remind you what we have done in this area. We have initiated the development of a new regulatory framework, modernisation of existing conventions, including the Convention on Nuclear Safety and the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident, and were the authors of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.

What, in my view, is the main problem today? We have a quality regulatory framework but not everyone has been quick to ratify and adopt it, including the most advanced states in the field of nuclear technology. I understand that this may limit their freedom to a certain extent and it clearly raises the bar for technological expectations and the amount of money that needs to be invested, but we have already started this process. That is why I believe that our nuclear power is the most advanced in the world and why we have been offering it to our partners. Other states should do the same to ensure that we have guaranteed protection from natural disasters and related tragedies, not to mention issues such as nuclear terrorism, when criminals gain unauthorised access to nuclear materials and technology. This undermines the security of our world and creates a threat of nuclear terrorism.

We are currently working on specific problems and will even conduct exercises aimed at preventing unauthorised access to such technologies, including the criminalistic aspect. I talked about this with our partners today.

In any case, the discussion was very useful. Its results are reflected in the joint communiquй, which is a balanced document that reflects a consensus on specific measures aimed at improving the system of accounting, control and physical protection of nuclear materials, as well as the prevention of illicit trafficking and reduction of the threat of nuclear terrorism.

Another initiative we have launched has to do with nuclear security culture. We have also presented a memorandum to the summit participants outlining the measures taken by our country after the Washington Summit in 2010. Naturally, we will take an active part in implementing the decisions adopted at today's summit in Seoul.

Once again I would like to thank the Republic of Korea and President of the Republic of Korea for the excellent organisation of this event.

Thank you for your attention. I am ready to answer your questions.

QUESTION: Mr President, in a statement after meeting with US President Barack Obama, you said that we still have time to agree on missile defence, but at the same time, you noted that at present the positions of the parties have not changed. During the negotiations, did the American side demonstrate a willingness to pursue a dialogue and try to reach concrete agreements, rather than just issue general statements? In this respect, when can we expect another round of consultations on missile defence?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: There have been no interruptions to our dialogue. I can say that the President of the United States has demonstrated a willingness to continue, and we fully support this as well. The question is, what is the aim of this dialogue?

We have a chance and there is still time for us to agree on all issues of the North Atlantic and European missile defence. In order to achieve that we must not only continue the consultations, but also come to specific decisions.

What have we agreed? President Obama and I spoke about this yesterday. We agreed that the consultations will continue, and over the next six to eight months they will be held with the participation of technical experts, because neither Russia nor the European countries have full clarity on all technical aspects of missile defence, including the so-called European phased adaptive approach to missile defence. I suspect that the Americans also lack a definitive understanding of what it will look like because the missile defence is not only a defensive initiative but also, to put it bluntly, a political issue, which is used by various political forces to achieve their own political interests, including the interests related to parliamentary and presidential elections.

Therefore, we will continue our consultations, the dialogue must go on, if only because it is much better to be talking and discussing than to take offence and do nothing. In any case, this dialogue should reach a conclusion, which will be favourable if we come to feel that our interests are being respected, and you know what we believe to be respect for our interests: a guarantee that this defence is not aimed against the Russian Federation (the form of the guarantee can be discussed), and our understanding of what will occur in the future.

Or the conclusion may be different, and I spoke about such an outcome last November. But I would not like to see such a conclusion, even though it is not something that can occur in the short term; the final decision will be taken in the second half of this decade. But I can say with absolute certainty that such an outcome would not benefit anyone, because it would mean an arms race, which is a costly solution for all. Second, this decision, unfortunately, if it comes to it, will be inevitable, but we would like to prevent it. Therefore, consultations and the dialogue will continue with the understanding of what I just said.

QUESTION: In continuation of the “political stuff”. Actually, as we know, journalists have keen hearing, especially after your one on one conversation with Mr Obama yesterday, which was overheard by journalists. As we know, Mr Obama asked you, so to speak, not to escalate the conversation on missile defence at present, saying that he would be more flexible in this regard after the election. How could you comment on these press reports and the harsh reaction from the presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who described Russia as the United States’ number one foe?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Decisions of this kind are always political. This is not a purely military matter. The idea of missile defence has been modified and changed.

As for our dialogue with Barack Obama, it's an ongoing conversation. It is conducted in a closed format, and yesterday we talked for one and a half hours on various topics, including missile defence. We have also talked about it with the media. So there are no secrets there, as indeed it is not surprising that some issues are very difficult to address in certain political situations. There can be better and worse times for tackling them. Obviously, the best time is when the political situation is stable, irrespective of specific policies, but just the overall construction is clear. In fact, that is what we were talking about. There is nothing surprising about this and we never tried to hide anything. President Obama could have said it publicly or in a one to one conversation. It’s just that whenever things are taken out of context, they acquire certain shades of meaning and give rise to allegations of conspiracy. I noticed today that there were four different interpretations of what was said. I wonder what will go down in history and what will come out of it in the end.

Nobody is interested in exacerbating the situation. I believe that in this respect, the dialogue between President Obama and me has been exemplary in the past years. Most importantly, it is essential for participants in a dialogue to hear each other. That is what Barack Obama and I have learned to do, and in this sense he has been a very comfortable conversation partner. When I told him something, he analysed it and gave his answer. When he told me something, I also analysed it instead of reciting ideological clichйs.

There is a difference between our past dialogue with the United States and the dialogue that is being conducted under President Obama. This does not mean that President Obama has held any special position in this regard. On the contrary, President Obama is a typical President of the United States. His position has always been absolutely pro-American. We have often held opposing views, but even when we disagreed with each other, it was always done in a proper form; first, it was always polite and second, we invariably explained our positions. I told him: “You know, Barack, I can do this but not that.” And he told me the same: “That's what I can do now, but here I will be tortured, for example, by Congress, and this decision will be very difficult to make.”

This is normal awareness of the political reality. This is exactly how a trust-based and friendly dialogue should be built, and I hope that this dialogue with the United States will continue. We would like to continue it regardless of who is in the White House but in reality the level of trust always depends on who performs specific duties, including the duties of the President of the United States.

With regard to various ideological clichйs, I have already spoken about it. You know, I'm always worried when someone uses the phrase “number one foe” or something like that. It smacks of Hollywood and certain times in the past. So I would recommend at least two things to all pretenders to the office of the President of the United States, not excepting the one you have mentioned. First, to use reason when formulating a position, to use their heads, which is not a bad thing for a presidential candidate. And second, to check their watches from time to time, since the year is 2012, and not the mid-1970s. Whichever party a candidate belongs to, he should bear in mind the current reality. Only then can he expect to win.