Europe

Bush unclear on what Putin seeks at meet

(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-02 08:42

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine - Relations are rocky between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, but they began their overnight visit at the Bush family's seaside summer home on Sunday with warm handshakes, lobster dinner and a hair-raising spin through the Atlantic's choppy waters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is greeted by former President George H. W. Bush as he arrives at Pease Air National Guard Base, in Newington, N.H., on Sunday, July 1, 2007. [AP]

The president knows what he wants from the talks: Convince Putin that a US missile defense system in Eastern Europe would not threaten Russia. Bring the Kremlin behind tough new penalties aimed at Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. Generally defrost relations.

What the Russian president seeks is less clear.

Putin requested an audience with Bush on his way to Guatemala, where Olympic officials are picking a host city for the 2014 winter games. Bush aides braced for the possibility of a surprise on the scale of the one the Russian leader dropped last month in Germany, on the missile defense dispute.

"Does Putin have something he plans to throw at Bush's feet?" wondered Sarah Mendelson, Russia policy expert and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Former President George H.W. Bush collected Putin at a nearby airport, accompanying him by helicopter and then limousine to the stone-and-shingle compound that's been in his family for over 100 years. Emerging from the car, Putin had a smile for the waiting current president, and kisses and large bouqets of flowers for first lady Laura Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush.

The Bushes escorted Putin to the guest house where he was spending the night, and then showed off another perk of the property situated on a craggy finger of rock. The elder Bush immediately piled his son and the Russian leader - everyone clad in black heavy-duty boating jackets - into his superpowered navy-and-white speedboat, Fidelity III, for about a 45-minute tour. Afterward, two generations of Bushes and others dined with Putin on traditional Maine treats: "lobster, what else?" joked Laura Bush, plus swordfish and blueberry and pecan pie.

There was talk of early-morning fishing on Monday before an informal meeting and appearance before reporters. The less-than-24-hour get-together was ending with lunch.

"It's pretty casual up here, as you know, unstructured," Bush had said as he awaited Putin's arrival, the water sparkling behind him and the sea breezes blowing. "OK? It's been real," he said later, dismissing the media horde that came to see the meetings get underway.

Both sides insisted there was no set agenda and scant potential for announcements. With expectations lowered and the relaxed itinerary, Mendelson only somewhat jokingly termed it "the no-summit summit."

Before leaving Moscow for the US, Putin had said his "very good, I would say friendly" relations should create a positive atmosphere. "If it wasn't that way, I wouldn't go, and I wouldn't have been invited," he said. "In politics, as in sports, there is always competition."

Indeed, US-Russian relations have slid to their worst point since the Cold War.

An anti-terrorism bond forged after the Sept. 11 attacks has been chipped at repeatedly. Disputes developed over the Iraq war, missile defense plans, the fate of democracy in Russia, NATO expansion to Russia's doorstep and sniping over what each side views as meddling in former Soviet republics.

There has been increasing cooperation on Iran and weapons proliferation.

Moscow is not persuaded by the argument that the system targets a possible future threat from Iranian nuclear missiles. The Kremlin threatened to aim missiles at Europe and denounced the US as an irresponsible source of force.

At a summit last month of world economic powers, Putin surprised Bush by proposing that the system instead use an old Soviet-era radar facility in Azerbaijan instead of the Czech and Polish sites. It is an idea that US officials do not want to reject outright. But they have concluded it would not work as a substitute, only perhaps as an early warning supplemental component.