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The participants in the meeting discussed the current geopolitical situation in the world and various aspects of Russia’s foreign policy and topical issues of bilateral cooperation with some foreign partners.

Among the topics discussed were the continued work to create a Common Economic Space and prospects for relations with the CIS and Baltic countries, the United States and the European Union.

The President paid particular attention to arms control. He spoke in favour of early ratification by the Federal Assembly of the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty signed by Vladimir Putin and George Bush on May 24, 2002 during the Russian-US summit in Moscow. The document, which reduces the number of nuclear warheads to 1,700–2,200 for each side, has already been approved by the US Senate and now needs the approval of the Russian Parliament in order to come into force. The State Duma initially planned to consider the treaty in March, but the debate on the issue was postponed due to the start of the US-British military operation in Iraq. Vladimir Putin called on the deputies not to delay the discussion of the document and to ratify it at tomorrow’s session. He is convinced that the treaty would help to preserve strategic stability and enable Russia to develop its nuclear potential on the basis of reasonable sufficiency and in line with its economic potential and the development of the military-political situation in the world.

The President reminded the members of Parliament that they would soon have to consider several more important international documents. They include treaties with Lithuania on the state border and delimitation of the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf in the Baltic, as well as a Russian-Lithuanian agreement on readmission. Vladimir Putin stressed that all these documents were particularly significant because they not only served to promote relations with Vilnius, but were part of the agreements between Russia and the European Union on the problem of Kaliningrad transit.