Italian PM Mets With Putin in KremlinRussian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday thanked visiting Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi for his work to improve bilateral relations, and the two leaders discussed cooperation in the international anti-terrorist campaign.Berlusconi arrived late Wednesday for a hastily arranged, one-day working visit. "Russia wants to develop its relations with Italy, one of our principal partners," Putin said at the opening of the two leaders' Kremlin meeting. "We appreciate your efforts to develop bilateral relations. You have just been named premier but we remember very well your signature on the 1994 Russian-Italian friendship agreement." Berlusconi had equally kind words for Putin. "We follow your activities with a great deal of attention. We have noticed extraordinary progress in Russia's democratization and in the economic field," he said. Putin expressed hope that Berlusconi's brief visit, which was necessitated "by the tense international situation," would not supplant the premier's full-fledged visit planned for next year. In addition to terrorism, the two leaders were expected to discuss relations between Russia and the European Union and Russia and NATO, the conflicts in the Middle East and the Balkans, and the future of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, from which the United States wants to withdraw, Russian news agencies reported. Russian newspapers said Thursday that Berlusconi's visit reflected Moscow's cultivation of stronger relations with the European Union. "The Italian premier's visit to Moscow comes at a time of political regroupings and a search for new partners," the Kommersant business daily noted. "With that in mind, one can hardly consider coincidental a statement by Italian Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero several days before Premier Berlusconi's visit to Moscow that EU expansion should also apply to Russia." |
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