Putin, Obama to hold 'full-scale' meeting at G20

  Xinhua, May 30, 2012

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a "full-scale" meeting on the sidelines of the upcoming Group of 20 (G20) summit, a Russian official said on Tuesday.

The two countries have agreed that Putin and Obama will make several agreements at the meeting and a presidential joint declaration on deeper bilateral ties, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov told reporters during a news briefing.

The G20 summit is scheduled for June in Los Cabos, Mexico.

According to Ushakov, Moscow will pursue "kind, promising ties" with Washington if both countries follow the principle of equality and non-involvement into the other's affairs.

During their last meeting in 2009, the two leaders talked for more than two hours over various issues and "both enjoyed it," Ushakov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying, adding that he is confident the two leaders will find "common language" this time.

Obama will not attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the Russian far eastern city Vladivostok this September, since he will take part in the U.S. Democratic Party Convention to be held at the same time, Ushakov said.

During recent telephone talks between Putin and Obama, the two leaders expressed their desire to strengthen bilateral relations and upgrade them to a new level, Ushakov said. As the "satisfactory" telephone talks indicated, the G20 talks will be a "close, good and substantial" conversation.