War on terrorism to dominate on the second day of G8 summit

One of the important area for discussion is the suppression of drug trafficking, which is a major source of financing of terrorism.

The summit will discuss prospects for closer international coordination in the fight against the global drug threat.

The next meeting will be dedicated to tax issues, and the G8 leaders will have lunch afterwards.

The final meeting of the G8 summit does not have a preset theme, but the British chair is expected to summarize the G8 summit results.

There will be a final press conference in the afternoon, and Putin will give a separate press conference for the Russian and foreign media.

US and Russia want to stop violence in Syria and push both sides to negotiating table

Russia and the United States disagree on how to end the conflict in Syria but want the bloodshed to stop and the warring parties brought to the negotiating table, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

"Our positions do not fully coincide, but we are united by the common intention to end the violence, to stop the number of victims increasing in Syria, to resolve the problems by peaceful means, including the Geneva talks," Putin said after talks with U.S. President Barack Obama at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland.

Looking tense and staring mostly at the floor alongside Obama, Putin added: "We agreed to push the process of peace talks and encourage the parties to sit down at the negotiation table, organise the talks in Geneva."

After bilateral negotiations with President Obama, Vladimir Putin stated that he hopes "that the elections in Iran will create a peaceful atmosphere that will help to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue"

President Obama, in turn, thanked Putin for help and active coopetation in the investigation of Boston terrorist attacks.

The Voice of Russia correspondent reports Mr Putin have also agreed with President Obama to "give a push to Syria peace-talks".

"Both Mr Putin and I are optimistic about the outcome of the recent Iranian elections" - Obama said after bilateral negotiations with the Russian President.

US and Russian Presidents also discussed ways to continue collaboration on Nanno-Lugar program.

Putin-Obama negotiations lasted twice as much as it was previously planned - almost 2 hours instead of 60 minutes.

Presidents Obama and Putin also talked about the Russian President's success in judo. Mr Obama statedhe was "less successful in basketball" and that with age it gets more and more difficult to recover and to keep good shape.

Putin, in turn, commented on Obama's words, saying that "the US President wants me to relax, to convince me that he has become weaker." At this phrase the two leaders laughed.

The US and Russian Presidents also requested the Security Councils of both states to maintain a regular dialogue.

"Russia and the United States will establish a working group to prevent cyber crime and cyber terrorsm" - President Putin said.

After the bilateral talks Russia and the US agreed to contact each other directly in order to reduce any nuclear threats.

The Presidents added that the bilateral dialogue between the Russian prime minister and vice-president of the United States should be intensified.

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama signed three agreements, including on the expansion of bilateral ties, anti-terrorism measures, and on building trust.

The two presidents have decided on launching a regular dialogue in a "2+2” format between foreign and defense ministers to discuss strategic stability, international security and common threats.

They also agreed on maintaining regular high-level contacts and resolved to hold a Russia-US summit in Moscow on September 3rd and 4th 2013.

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN:

We’ve had talks with the President of the United States on almost all the matters: we started with the economy and discussed it very substantively. We agreed to launch new mechanisms for cooperation in this area, including at the level of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and Vice President of the United States of America. We talked in detail about security issues – strategic security between our two nations and throughout the world overall. I think we have the opportunity to move forward in the most sensitive areas.

Naturally, we discussed problem spots on the planet, including Syria. There are still some aspects where our positions do not align, but we are united by a common aspiration to stop violence, stop the growth of victims in Syria and resolve the problem by peaceful means, including with the help of talks in Geneva. We agreed to push forward the peace talk process and push the parties to the negotiations table, organise talks in Geneva.

We express hope that after the elections in Iran, there will be new opportunities to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem. We will try to do that bilaterally and within the framework of the international negotiation process.

Naturally, we spoke about the problem of North Korea. We agreed to bolster our cooperation in all these areas.

I am very grateful to the US President for the detailed discussion and for the very sincere exchange of opinions we had today.

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BARACK OBAMA:

I had a very useful conversation with President Putin, and I began by thanking him again for the cooperation that was provided in dealing with the tragedy of the bombing at the Boston Marathon. We have a shared interest in countering terrorist violence, and we are continuing to strengthen our cooperation on this issue, including as we welcome Russia hosting the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

As President Putin indicated, we had extensive discussions about how we can further deepen our economic and commercial relationships. With Russian accession to the WTO and the removal of Jackson-Vanik, I think we’re poised to increase both trade and investment between our two countries, and that can create jobs and business opportunities both for Russians and Americans.

Our discussions on North Korea and Iran were very productive, and we both agreed to consult closely on the North Korean issue. And on Iran, we both expressed cautious optimism that with the new election there, we may be able to move forward on a dialogue that allows us to resolve the problems with Iran’s nuclear programme.

With respect to Syria, we do have differing perspectives on the problem, but we share an interest in reducing the violence, securing chemical weapons and ensuring that they’re neither used nor are they subject to proliferation and that we want to try to resolve the issue through political means if possible, so we will instruct our teams to continue to work on the potential of a Geneva follow-up to the first meeting.

And finally, we had a discussion about the fact that as the two nuclear superpowers, we have a special obligation to try to continue to reduce tensions, to build on the work that we did with the New START and to lead the world in both nuclear security issues and proliferation issues. And one of the concrete outcomes of this meeting is that we’ll be signing the continuation of the cooperation that was first established through the Nunn-Lugar programme to counter the potential threats of proliferation and to enhance nuclear security. And this, I think, is an example of the kind of constructive, cooperative relationship that moves us out of a Cold War mind-set into the realm where by working together, we not only increase security and prosperity for the Russian and American people, but also help lead the world to a better place.

And finally, we compared notes on President Putin’s expertise in Judo and my declining skills in basketball. [Laughter.] And we both agreed that as you get older, it takes more time to recover.

Thank you very much.

Voice of Russia