The Slovenia Summit 2001 was a
summit meeting between United States President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
and Russian President
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...
(hence also known as the Bush-Putin summit). It took place on 16 June 2001, on the
Brdo pri Kranju estate in northern
Slovenia
Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...
. It was hosted by the then
Prime Minister of Slovenia
The prime minister of Slovenia, officially the president of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia (), is the Head of government, head of the Government of Slovenia, Government of the Slovenia, Republic of Slovenia. There have been nine offi ...
Janez Drnovšek and by the
President of Slovenia
The president of Slovenia, officially the president of the Republic of Slovenia (), is the head of state of Slovenia. The office was established on 23 December 1991 when the National Assembly (Slovenia), National Assembly passed a new ...
Milan Kučan
Milan Kučan (; born 14 January 1941) is a Slovenian former politician who served as the first President of Slovenia from 1991 to 2002. Before being president of Slovenia, he was the 13th President of Slovenia#Socialist Republic of Slovenia, Pres ...
.
Bush and Putin discussed a wide range of political issues and established a diplomatic case for future cooperation and negotiations. This was also Bush's first official trip to Europe as U.S. President.
Summary
Before Bush and Putin met privately, each met with Prime Minister Janez Drnovšek and President Milan Kučan. The Slovenes' talks with Putin focused on the situation in South Eastern Europe, particularly in
Macedonia
Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to:
* North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia
* Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity
* Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...
. Kučan familiarized Putin with the agreement reached Friday in
Skopje
Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...
to begin a dialog on constitutional adjustments.
Speaking with Bush, Drnovšek and Kučan focused on
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
expansion and partnership among Europe, the US and Russia. Bush did not go so far as to offer an invitation for membership in NATO as many suspected. He simply reiterated the stance he had taken earlier in his trip, that he supports NATO expansion and is sure that at the summit next year in
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
new members will be invited.
After the meetings,
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency ...
quoted Bush as saying "I would urge people looking for a good vacation spot to come here." The American president was apparently quite impressed with Drnovšek, Kučan and Slovenia itself, and publicly thanked Drnovšek 'for his hospitality in this spectacular, beautiful country.'"
The summit was judged a success by both sides even though it left Russia and the US little closer to resolving the issues that divided them. The atmosphere was one of friendly co-operation with the two leaders getting on far better than expected. The warmth of the meeting surprised many. The first handshake looked stiff and awkward, but after well over an hour of talks they came out smiling with Bush inviting the Russian leader to visit his
ranch in Texas.
Bush described their meeting as straightforward and effective. He said it was time to move beyond
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
attitudes, away from mutually assured destruction towards mutually earned respect. "We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul. He's a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country and I appreciate very much the frank dialogue and that's the beginning of a very constructive relationship," Bush said.
Putin also seemed to suggest these two very different leaders had built up a rapport. Echoing Bush he called the United States Russia's partner. Warm words, unthinkable just a few months ago. The Russian leader said both their countries bore a special responsibility for maintaining world peace and security. However he warned that any unilateral action would make that process more complicated - a signal that difficult discussions on NATO and the US missile defense system still lay ahead.
At the closing press conference, in response to a question about whether he could trust Putin, Bush said, "I looked the man in the eye. I found him very straightforward and trustworthy – I was able to get a sense of his soul." Bush's top security aide
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza "Condi" Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist serving since 2020 as the 8th director of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served ...
later wrote that Bush's phrasing had been a serious mistake. "We were never able to escape the perception that the president had naïvely trusted Putin and then been betrayed."
American agenda
The following were the key talking points of the U.S. delegation according to Ariel Cohen:
* Further reductions of their strategic
nuclear arsenal
Nine sovereign states are generally understood to possess nuclear weapons, though only eight formally acknowledge possessing them. United Nations Security Council#Permanent members, Five are considered to be nuclear-weapon states (NWS) unde ...
s;
* The spread of Russian weapons of mass destruction and related technologies to proliferators such as China and insubordinate states such as
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
, and
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
;
* The U.S.-led development and deployment of a global
missile defense
Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and also the destruction of attacking missiles. Conceived as a defense against nuclear weapon, nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic mi ...
;
* The consequences of establishing formal regional alliances with China, Iran, or other states hostile to the United States;
* The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the
New Independent States (NIS), especially
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
and
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
;
* Economic ties and Russia's accession to the
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...
(WTO); and
* Efforts to increase freedom of the press in Russia and focus on Russia's poor record on
human rights
Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...
in
Chechnya
Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federa ...
.
Russian agenda
Discussions of the imminent threat of Islamist attacks on the U.S. homeland emanating from Afghanistan were held after Putin warned Bush and
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza "Condi" Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist serving since 2020 as the 8th director of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served ...
of the danger. Both of them discounted it as personal bitterness about the Soviet failure in Afghanistan, only to see the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
prove him right. Rice later wrote about it in her 2011 memoir ''No Higher Honour: A Memoir of My Years in Washington'':
''No Higher Honour: A Memoir of My Years in Washington'', by Condoleezza Rice, 2011, pg. 30
/ref>
"Putin suddenly raised the problem of Pakistan. He excoriated the Pervez Musharraf regime for its support of extremists and for the connections of the Pakistani army and intelligence services to the Taliban and al Qaeda. Those extremists were all being funded by Saudi Arabia, he said, and it was only a matter of time until it resulted in a major catastrophe... Putin, though, was right. The Taliban and al-Qaida were time bombs
that would explode on September 11, 2001... I was taken aback by Putin's alarm and vehemence."
See also
* Russia–United States relations
The United States and the Russian Federation have had diplomatic relations since the establishment of the latter country in 1991, a continuation of the relationship the United States has had with various Russian governments since 1803. While bo ...
* List of Soviet Union–United States summits
* List of Russia–United States summits
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
* Slovakia Summit 2005
References
Further reading
* Goldgeier, James, and Michael McFaul. "George W Bush and Russia." ''Current History'' 101.657 (2002): 313+.
* Herspring, Dale R., and Jacob Kipp. "Understanding the Elusive Mr. Putin." ''Problems of Post-communism'' 48.5 (2001): 3-17.
* Mattox, Gale A. "Resetting the US–Russian relationship: is ‘cooperative engagement’possible?." ''European security'' 20.1 (2011): 103-116.
External links
Official Site of the Meeting
BBC News Story on the Meeting
{{authority control
2001 conferences
2001 in international relations
2001 in American politics
2000s in Russian politics
2001 in Slovenia
21st-century diplomatic conferences
Diplomatic conferences in Slovenia
Russia–United States relations
Slovenia–United States relations
Russia–Slovenia relations
Foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration
Vladimir Putin
2000s in Ljubljana
Events in Ljubljana
June 2001 in Europe