And now I can tell you what I was intending to do all along, and that is to discuss and raise the issue of strategic stability and try to set up a mechanism whereby we dealt with it. Before I came, I told you I only negotiate with the individual. You asked me many times what was I going to discuss with Putin. One of those areas is strategic stability. I also said there are areas where there’s a mutual interest for us to cooperate, for our people - Russian and American people - but also for the benefit of the world and the security of the world. The bottom line is, I told President Putin that we need to have some basic rules of the road that we can all abide by. I made it clear that we will not tolerate attempts to violate our democratic sovereignty or destabilize our democratic elections, and we would respond.
I think he knows free#
I also raised the ability of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty to operate, and the importance of a free press and freedom of speech. The idea is: “We hold these truths self-evident that all men and women…” We haven’t lived up to it completely, but we’ve always widened the arc of commitment and included more and more people.Īnd I raised the case of two wrongfully imprisoned American citizens: Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed.
I made it clear to President Putin that we’ll continue to raise issues of fundamental human rights because that’s what we are, that’s who we are. And we yield them to a government.Īnd so, at the forum, I pointed out to him that that’s why we’re going raise our concerns about cases like Aleksey Navalny. What’s that idea? We don’t derive our rights from the government we possess them because we’re born - period. You’ve heard me say this before, again and again, but I’m going to keep saying it. I told him that, unlike other countries, including Russia, we’re uniquely a product of an idea. How could I be the President of the United States of America and not speak out against the violation of human rights? It’s not about just going after Russia when they violate human rights it’s about who we are. So, human rights is going to always be on the table, I told him. That’s just part of the DNA of our country. I also told him that no President of the United States could keep faith with the American people if they did not speak out to defend our democratic values, to stand up for the universal rights and fundamental freedoms that all men and women have, in our view. Now, I told President Putin my agenda is not against Russia or anyone else it’s for the American people: fighting COVID-19 rebuilding our economy reestablishing our relationships around the world with our allies and friends and protecting our people. And it should be able to - we should be able to cooperate where it’s in our mutual interests.Īnd where we have differences, I wanted President Putin to understand why I say what I say and why I do what I do, and how we’ll respond to specific kinds of actions that harm America’s interests. And President Putin and I had a - share a unique responsibility to manage the relationship between two powerful and proud countries - a relationship that has to be stable and predictable. One, there is no substitute, as those of you who have covered me for a while know, for a face-to-face dialogue between leaders. Well, I’ve just finished the - the last meeting of this week’s long trip, the U.S.-Russian Summit.Īnd I know there were a lot of hype around this meeting, but it’s pretty straightforward to me - the meeting. There was no problem getting through those doors, was it - was there?Īnyway, hello, everyone.
(Laughs.) I know it was easy getting into the - the pre-meeting. THE PRESIDENT: It’s been a long day for you all.
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