- guardian.co.uk, Sunday June 17 2001 02.27 BST
After their first summit - at a medieval mansion in Slovenia - US President George Bush hailed President Vladimir Putin of Russia as a 'remarkable leader' he could trust, while Putin spoke of the two countries being potential 'partners and allies'.
The summit's focus was Bush's drive to strike a grand strategic bargain enabling Washington to embark on its radical plans to build missile defences - the 'Son of Star Wars' scheme urged by US hawks but which many in Europe, Russia, and Washington fear would make the world a much more dangerous place.
While Putin continued to insist on the validity and value of the 1972 ABM treaty which bans missile defence, the Americans were encouraged by the agreement to have both countries' Foreign and Defence Ministers meet to explore a possible deal. The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said the talks would be launched 'very quickly'.
Bush reiterated his argument that the ABM treaty was past its sell-by date and demanded that it was high time for the US and Russia 'to talk differently and act differently'. 'More than a decade after the end of the Cold War, it is time to move beyond suspicion, beyond mutually assured destruction and towards mutually earned respect,' Bush declared.
In words that delighted the new US administration, Putin said both countries bore 'responsibility for building a new architecture of world security'.
Condoleezza Rice, Bush's Russian-speaking National Security Adviser, said: 'We believe there is a new security framework to be had. Its form is up for discussion. We're open to discussion.'
The 100-minute face-to-face meeting between the presidents appeared to be a male-bonding session, with the leaders lavishing praise on one another afterwards.
Putin was invited to the presidential ranch in Crawford, Texas, while Bush is to visit the Russian President at home in Moscow.
'Both men connected. They have a sense of humour. It was not a very scripted meeting,' Rice said. She described the summit as 'quite remarkable'.
'I looked the man in the eye,' gushed the US President. 'I found him very straightforward and trustworthy.'
Putin appeared to be equally satisfied, saying the frankness of the meeting had exceeded his expectations and nodding vigorously in agreement with many of Bush's remarks.
While the Russians stuck to their support for the ABM pact, arguing its abrogation would invalidate the 32 arms control and security agreements that have flowed from it over the past 30 years, Putin also kept his options open, encouraging the new Republican administration to believe that in the months ahead the Kremlin could be persuaded of the merits of its ambitious plans to refashion world security structures and thus help to dispel European scepticism towards missile defence.
Bush flew home last night, delighted that his week-long debut in Europe had impressed on allies and the Russians his determination to break with the foreign policies of the Clinton era in pursuit of his 'new realism'.
Despite disagreements over missile defence, global warming and Nato expansion, the Russians and the Europeans were warned that the Republicans would get their way, preferably with, but if necessary without, their cooperation.
Bush's drive to get Russia and western Europe to back his plans also resulted in a European Union statement demanding action to tackle the problems presented by nuclear proliferation.
But seeking to blunt unilateralist tendencies in Washington, the Gothenburg summit of EU leaders called for 'a global and multilateral approach' leading to a conference on missile defence.
Putin also cautioned that any 'unilateral actions could only make things more complicated'.
This went down less well with the Bush administration. While seeking to woo Putin and EU leaders with offers of 'partnership' and 'consultation', Bush also made it plain that he was dictating the terms of the cooperation as the leader of the world's sole superpower.
Scrapping many of the policies of the Clinton era, the new right in Washington has downgraded Russia as a foreign policy priority and only agreed to yesterday's summit after weeks of lobbying by Moscow. The Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, confided to Powell that he would be out of a job unless he won agreement to the meeting.
Despite Bush's talk of partnership with the Kremlin and having Putin as a 'friend', the underlying reality appeared to be that the American President is breaking with the habits of two generations and charting a new global strategy in which a declining Russia looms a lot less large.
The US leader made it plain the Kremlin will have to earn any partnership. Both sides clashed over human rights, press freedom, Russia's growing cooperation with Iran, and the prospect of the Nato alliance expanding into the former Soviet Union.
